RainbowShy: Friends who Forgive
by Kerithen
Summary: A pony wakes up with no memory. She decides to find out who she is by looking for other ponies, until she can find out who she is, and what happened. Of course, that's just the beginning though...
1. Awakening

Heyo, this is my very first fanfic. It uses a setting i've been meaning to put into a story, but never got the chance. But, i started watching some MLP, and saw the massive fanfic groups, and realised where this story belongs. This is an attempt at an emotional fanfic. Don't worry, it gets better. And i've done my best to make sure the very ending is unexpected, yet heartwarming. I'm not an idiot, or an NPC, I'm a writer. Oh, and to those who come here in the future after reading my fantastical stories, this is my first one, but hey, it's still the best fanfic of all time... Right?

* * *

She opened her eyes. Her vision was blurred, and all she could see was blue. She frowned, and put her hooves over her eyes. She pulled them away, and noticed new, unfocused blobs of colour forming in the blue. She blinked rapidly, and rubbed her eyes. She realised the blobs were white in colour. Her eyes adjusted, and she realised she was looking at the sky, with white, fluffy clouds looking down on her.

She sat up, and a wave of nausea hit her, and she fell back dizzily and stared at the clouds again. She lay there for a few minutes, and began thinking about her current situation. _What am I doing here?_ she wondered. She lifted her head and looked around, and attempted to get her bearings. She was lying in the middle of a field, and there was a reservoir near her.

She sat up, and groaned as another wave of nausea hit her. It was less intense this time, and she was able to bear it. _Where in the world am I,_ she mused. She attempted to stand up, but a certain sight made her gasp and cease movement.

Above her, there was a massive shape she hadn't noticed before, seemingly made of many smaller clouds, high in the sky. But it seemed like these clouds were arranged neatly, almost like they had been carefully placed by somepony. She stood up and gazed in wonder at the amazing formation.

"Woah," she said to herself, "That sure is something."

A sudden pain screamed inside her head, and she fell to the ground, gasping in pain.

_Suddenly, she was up on the cloud. She tried to yell, but for some reason, she couldn't do anything, yet she was moving. She had no control over what she was doing. She was yelling at a Pegasus. This Pegasus had long pink hair that flowed down to her knees. She had yellow fur, and had three butterflies as her cutie mark. Her face had a mixed expression of fear and melancholy. "Why am I so angry at this Pegasus", she wondered. _

_"Why do you always have to be so slow, Fluttershy?" She shouted at the Pegasus._

_"I-I'm sorry, Rainbow," Fluttershy was saying, "I tried my best, but-"_

_"NO EXCUSE!" She screamed at Fluttershy, "THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE!"_

_Her vision blurred, and everything started to look red. Suddenly, she was_ _charging at a terrified Fluttershy. The red continued to intensify as she came closer and closer, and Fluttershy backed away, with a scared expression on her face._

_"I-I-I didn't mean it, Rainbow!" Fluttershy was stammering, "B-b-but there was nothing I could have done!" _

_Oh no, what am I doing? she thought. The red colour continued to intensify to the point that she was blinded by it. _

Suddenly, the red faded to blue, and she realised she was looking back up at the sky. She sat up again. _What was that? Was that me? When did this happen? Who was this "Fluttershy"? Why was I so angry at her?_ These questions continued to confuse and frustrate her, as she realised she couldn't answer one of them. But she had a theory. She figured it must have been a memory from before. _But why can't I remember any more? _she pondered. She was frustrated at how little this memory revealed of the situation she was in, but it did reveal one thing: her name is Rainbow.

* * *

And that's the end of chapter one. I would appreciate any praise or criticism of course, this is only my first story, I need to get better. Oh, right, the cliffhanger. Who is our protagonist? Will she ever find out? Oh, right, you already know those cliffhangers, it's the last sentence. Well, will she ever discover what is up with Fluttershy, and what has happened to her? Find out in the next chapter if RainbowShy! Oh, and don't feel obligated to immediately rate this five stars, I need to keep a low cover. You can give it less :D


	2. Recognition

Hiya, Kerithen here, just reminding you all that this is chapter TWO. If you haven't read chapter 1 yet, you have no idea what you're missing out on. Thank me later. Oh, so here you guys (and gals) go :D

* * *

Rainbow heard voices from across the field, but she couldn't make out what they were saying. She stood up, ignoring the dizziness that rushed through her once again, and trotted in the direction of the voices. She passed over a hill, and saw a unicorn and a pony walking together and talking animatedly.

The unicorn had dark, straight, purple hair, with a single pink streak running through it, and her fur was a brighter shade of purple. The unicorn's cutie mark appeared to be a pink star, surrounded by smaller white stars. The pony was wearing a brown cowboy hat, and underneath it was long blond hair, tied with a ribbon at the end. Her fur was orange, with three apples as her cutie mark. The pony was wearing an angry expression, unlike the unicorn standing with her, who appeared calmer.

They were still too far away for Rainbow to hear them, so she crept closer to them, until she could just make out what they were saying.

"I can't believe what she did though!" the pony was saying.

"Look," the unicorn said, "Rainbow had every right to be angry, and I'm incredibly horrified of what she did, but-"

"But nothing! She was killed!"

The unicorn looked like she was about to reply, but simply sighed sadly and continued walking in silence.

Rainbow was horrified. _Oh no _she thought, _I… I must have killed Fluttershy! _Rainbow fell to the ground, and started sobbing. After a few moments, she heard footsteps approaching her. She stood up quickly and saw the orange pony coming towards her. Rainbow looked around for somewhere to hide, but there was no cover close by. She resorted to simply cowering where she stood.

"What is it, Applejack?" shouted the unicorn, who had not moved from her position.

Rainbow watched as the pony approached her, but was surprised to find she wasn't even looking at her. She was staring around her, carefully scanning the surroundings, but never settling on Rainbow. Rainbow finally worked up some courage and spoke:

"Um… e-excuse me, b-but… where am I?" she stammered nervously.

The orange pony looked around wildly, a startled expression on her face. Then, recognition registered on her face, "I-Is that you?" she said.

"Uh, my name is Rainbow. Your name is Applejack, if I heard correctly. Can you help-"

"You're not… you can't be- you're not Rainbow!" Applejack screamed, before galloping off hurriedly.

Rainbow chased after Applejack, but found that she was much slower than the pony. So Rainbow watched Applejack join the purple unicorn and race off together down the path. Rainbow sat down and stared up at the vast, blue sky; lost in her thoughts. _Why couldn't Applejack see me?_ Again, she could think of no feasible answer to her query. She hit the ground with her hoof in frustration.

She needed answers. And she knew where she could get some.

"I've got to speak to Applejack if i want answers. If I follow her hoof steps maybe i can find her again," Rainbow said aloud.

Rainbow stood up determinedly and began following the markings along the path, all the while keeping an eye out for other ponies. After a few minutes of walking, Rainbow arrived at a wooden archway, leading to a town with lush flora and long green grass, with colourful houses with straw roofs. Rainbow looked up at the arch, it read: "Welcome to Ponyville!"

* * *

Oh my! What on earth has Rainbow (Dash if you haven't figured it out/seen the show) done!? Oh, what on earth shall she do in Ponyville? Oh, the suspense is killing me! STAY TUNED, LESSER BEINGS, FOR I AM THE FANFIC GOD! MWUH HA HA HA HA HA! Chapter 3 coming up, but first, should see season 3 of MLP. So, seeya tomorrow!


	3. Realisation

Hi nubs! (nubs means friend in my dictionary, not noob, so don't be offended nub!) 5:30AM, and i don't feel like sleep, so I'm gonna write this right now. This is a special one, cause I have no idea where my mind will take me with this chapter! Oh, don't worry, we aren't even halfway... yet. See ya at the finish line, nubs!

* * *

Rainbow trotted slowly into the town, surveying the houses and trees around her. There were ponies and unicorns of all colours going about their daily business, but she couldn't see the orange pony, Applejack, or the purple unicorn from before. As she walked slowly down the street, Rainbow was astonished to find that ponies acted like she wasn't even there. They continuously bumped into her, and no one would apologise or meet her gaze. Then it struck her. _They must all know who I am - They must all think that I killed Fluttershy! They must hate me!_

Her erratic thoughts were interrupted by yet another person bumping into her. Rainbow decided to apologise herself, if they wouldn't.

"Oh, so sorry i didn't see you th- Applejack!" Rainbow perked up when she realised who she had just bumped into.

"Who said that?" yelled the orange pony, "Get away from me!" Abruptly, she galloped off to the centre of town. Rainbow gave chase, and was able to see her flee into a colossal tree situated in the middle of town. It's great, thick branches extended high into the sky, and it's large leaves provided wonderful cover from the warm sun.

Rainbow had never seen anything like this tree before. This tree had terraces and lanterns on it, like it was a house! Rainbow ran to the base of the trunk, where a large, red door was nestled, dodging anypony who got in her way. She nudged the door open and peeked inside. She could see Applejack and the unicorn talking again.

"Twilight, I'm telling you, I heard her clear as day, I did!" Applejack shouted.

"Are you sure, Applejack? I mean, are you sure you didn't mishear?" Twilight inquired.

"Twilight, I know what i heard. It was _her!_"

Sensing Applejack and Twilight were engrossed in the conversation, Rainbow took the opportunity to sneak into the house. She dashed behind a bookcase, where she could hear the conversation much more easily.

"Well," Twilight said, "Luckily I know a spell for a situation like this. It should make her visible to us."

"That's great!" cried Applejack excitedly, followed by a look of confusion, "Wait, what? We can already see her. Ponies bodies don't just fade. Well, at least not immediately... That's called decomposing, which takes time!"

"I know, calm down Applejack! I mean, we would be able to see her ghost!"

"Oh, that's great, Twilight! So you think that was her ghost that was talking to me on the road?"

Rainbow cried out in shock. It wasn't Fluttershy that was dead... It was herself!

* * *

Yeah, yeah, it was a tiny chapter, but it will matter later. Ok, I think we are halfway now, unless i think of another tedious issue. Oh, and you won't have to wait for chapter 4, I'm writing it straight after this one! XOXO


	4. Capture

Eeeeeeeyep.

* * *

Rainbow suddenly felt the same pain in her head as earlier, and was suddenly up on the cloud. It appeared to continue right from when it had left off.

_She was charging at a terrified Fluttershy. "No, no no, no no no no no no no! I do NOT want to see this! Wake up! Wake up!" But she didn't wake up. She hit the Pegasus with her forehead while charging full speed._

_Suddenly, the clouds that she was standing on were gone, and Rainbow and Fluttershy were falling! Rainbow seemed to be paralyzed. Fluttershy was still falling and spinning, but she was slowly stabilising. Suddenly, she started screaming, and the ground was rushing up, closer and closer and closer, until-_

Rainbow awoke, with her vision blurred again. But this time, she couldn't see the blue. There were all sorts of colours around her, and she waited for her vision to clear up again. This time, the colours turned into ponies. There was Applejack and Twilight, but there was also a pony, with a crazy, poofed up pink mane, and her coat was an even brighter shade of pink, and her cutie mark was three baloons. For some reason, she seemed to be the only one there smiling. She creeped Rainbow out.

There was also a unicorn with a certain elegant look. She had a well brushed purple mane, which gave it a unique look. Her coat was almost white, and had three gems for a cutie mark. All of them were looking at Rainbow. She started to feel uncomfortable, and attempted to stand up, but found herself unable. Frowning, she looked down, only to see that she was sitting in a chair. She tried again, but failed.

"Oh, right," said Twilight, "I cast a spell on you, you can't move your body. I'm sorry, but we don't want you to run. You understand, right?"

"Well, no, actually, I don't understand," Rainbow said, "what are you doing to me?"

"W-we just want to talk, that's all!" Piped in the elegant one.

"And we want to help you, cause we can help you, so we will help you!" cried the creepy one.

"What are you trying to help me with?" Rainbow asked, confused. And now that her eyes were fully focused, she noticed that she was in the tree still.

"Well, we just want to help you understand." said Applejack.

"Help me understand what? What happened to me before I died?"

All of them looked startled by this comment.

"Oh, so you do remember then?" Twilight inquired.

"Well, uh, no, but I do remember some of it…"

"What do you remember exactly?" Applejack inquired, "Cause we aint entirely sure what happened up there anyway."

"Well… I… I…" She was hit by a wave of sadness, and a tear descended down her cheek at the memory.

"Oh, you don't need to tell us right now!" Applejack said, "You can just tell us when you feel more up to it!"

Suddenly, the doors opened loudly behind her. She tried to strain her neck to see who it was, but failed. Everyone gasped for some reason.

"Rainbow Dash!" They cried.

* * *

Did they just say that? What? What the hell just happened? Isn't this the biggest mind blowing moment of all time!? You're about to find out.


	5. Surprise

Ok, this was the smallest chapter so far, but mostly because of that I'm tired. But, a lot of stuff happens here. These twists- ok, pretty much twist will take you completely by surprise (or you saw them coming after the first paragraph)! Want to read thhe rest of this fantastical Authors note? Well hurry up and finish the chapter! aaaaaaaaaaand... GO!

* * *

_'What?'_ Rainbow wondered, _'isn't that me?'_

She got no reply, but heard a loud sob from behind her, and heard the doors slam shut again.

'Is she gone?' Rainbow asked.

'Y-yes,' Twilight said, 'but do you know who that was?'

'No, but I think I recognise her voice from somewhere.'

'Oh, wait!' cried Applejack, 'do you even know who you are?'

'Of course. I'm Rainbow!'

They all exchanged a look with each other. _'Why are they acting so weird now?' _she wondered.

'Uh, why do you think your name is Rainbow?' Twilight asked.

'Because in the few memories I still have before I… You know… Uh, Fluttershy would call me Rainbow.'

They were startled by this comment.

'Wait,' Applejack said, 'You think that you killed Fluttershy?'

'What, I didn't kill Fluttershy?' She said hopefully.

'Uh… well… No, you didn't…' Twilight replied.

Rainbow felt like a great weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She let out a sigh of relief.

"But there's more to it than that." Twilight started, "You see Fluttershy-"

"Fluttershy?" She asked.

"Oh, ah, well…" Applejack was saying.

"Yep, you're Fluttershy!" the creepy one said

All of them started yelling at the creepy one, and tried to reassure Rainbow (now Fluttershy), but she had stopped listening. _If I'm Fluttershy, then that means that I'm not Rainbow. Rainbow must be the pony, pegasus or unicorn from before. They called her Rainbow Dash. And based from what I remember, then that means…_

"She… she killed me!" Fluttershy screamed.

They had all stopped yelling at each other, and were now staring at her.

"Rainbow Dash! She knocked me off the cloud and we were both falling. How come she gets to live and not me?" Fluttershy was crying now, but they were tears of rage.

Suddenly, her head started to hurt again. But this time, it wasn't the sort of pain she felt whenever she remembered something. Her vision started to darken, and then there was nothing.

* * *

Oh man, she was Fluttershy the whole time!? Wow, that just knocked my shoes AND my socks off! Oh, and will Fluttershy ever wake up? Did she just die... again? And how does Rainbow Dash feel about the incident? Find out soon, suckers!


	6. Perspective

Sorry this one took too long, but brilliant writing takes a while, you know? Of course, if you were writing this, we would have to wait a few years for the next chapter. Luckily, I'm that amazing. Oh, right, the amazing story. This is pretty unique to the others, and I was having trouble thinking of how to show how Rainbow Dash felt about how she killed Fluttershy, and I got this. You're welcome. (Oh, and for a lot of the story, I will be reffering to Rainbow Dash as Dash, cause it seemed real weird to always say Rainbow Dash, so yeah...)

* * *

Rainbow Dash was still feeling pain from the fall. She had landed into the reservoir, but it was still a big drop. Also, that's not the only pain she felt. Dash slowly walked past Twilight's house, thinking over the events that had happened the previous day. _It's all my fault. I could have stopped her. Hell, I'm the one that knocked her off! I don't know why Fluttershy did it. But she shouldn't have. If only_- Her thoughts were interrupted by Twilight's voice. She decided to look through a window to get a better look of who Twilight was talking to, but there was a bookcase in the way. But Dash could still see the purple coat. She also saw an orange coat, a white coat, and a pink coat. All her friends were in there.

_What are they doing? Why didn't they ask me to come? Are they talking about me? Or are they trying to get rid of me… _She decided that she would question them. She walked to the door, and could barely make out Applejack saying "You don't… to tell… now… can just… feel… to it." _What is she talking about?_ She decided to surprise them, and kicked the doors open with her hoof. They all turned to look at her. Except one of them.

"Rainbow Dash!" They yelled.

She wasn't paying any attention to the others. She was looking at the pegasus sitting in the chair in the middle of the room. The chair wasn't facing her, but she could still see the pink hair and the yellow coat. She knew who it was.

She backed away, then ran, slamming the doors shut behind her, tears streaming down her face. She didn't know where she was running, but she knew she had to get away from there. She didn't know how far she had run, but suddenly, she heard Fluttershy scream. "SHE KILLED ME!" The sound of Fluttershy's voice spurred her to go even faster.

By the time she had stopped running, the sun had gone down. It had started to rain. She looked around herself for shelter, and realised she had just ran past Applejack's farm. She backtracked her steps, and found the barn. She walked through the barn doors. It was somewhat warmer in the barn, and she wouldn't get wet, so she decided to lie down, and stay here for the night. She fell asleep.

_Suddenly, she was falling. She tried to spread her wings, but her body wouldn't respond. She was falling from Cloudsdale with Fluttershy. This had already happened. The ground was getting closer and closer to her, but she already knew what was going to happen. She saw Fluttershy about to fly away, but she turned to look at Dash. A look of indecision went over her face, then a determined look, and then Fluttershy was speeding down towards her._

_The ground wasn't far now, and she would hit it in a few seconds. She closed her eyes… and felt herself being pushed. She opened her eyes, and saw she was headed for the reservoir. She looked back at Fluttershy, and saw her trying to slow her descent, but it was too late. She was going too fast. Fluttershy was getting closer and closer to the ground. She suddenly looked at Rainbow, with a blank expression on her face. Then everything went dark._

She was woken by the noise of the barn door opening. She looked up, but her eyes were too unfocused. It sounded like it had stopped raining.

"You!" said the voice at the doors.

She squinted until her eyes finally adjusted, and saw who was talking to her.

Fluttershy.

* * *

Uh oh, isn't Fluttershy pissed at Rainbow Dash? How pissed though? What is Fluttershy going to do? Does she want revenge? YOU WILL NEVER KNOW!

Nah, just kidding, you will in a little bit. Oh, and while writing this, I got a brilliant idea (another one) for the ending, so now it will actually make sense. Oh, I can't wait for all the prizes this will get! I'm sure everyone has heard of this story, and is on the front page. Oh, i meant every"pony". So... I guess see you next time!


	7. Escape

Yeah, I wrote it. I did last chapter in Rainbow Dash's view to kinda show how she was feeling about the ordeal. I'm going to tell you now that didn't cover everything she was feeling. I also haven't said yet why Rainbow Dash was so angry. I was gonna write something a little stupid, but had a much better idea. Anyway, enjoy this. Now.

* * *

Fluttershy's eyes opened. There was commotion all around her. She tried to move her hoof, but it wouldn't respond. She attempted to take in her surroundings. She was in the same place she was in before. The purple unicorn- Twilight was pacing around the room, the pink one was standing in a corner, staring at the wall, the elegant one was yelling something about this being the worst possible thing, and the pony, Applejack, was standing next to her. She perked up at the sight of Fluttershy waking up.

"You alright, hon?" Applejack asked. "you've been out for a while. How you feeling?"

She was about to answer, when she remembered what had just happened. She glared at her.

"You know how I feel."

Applejack sighed and looked away.

"Hey, Twi, she's woken up."

Twilight looked at her, and frowned. She glared back.

"Fluttershy," Twilight said, "look, I just want you to know that I'm sure that Rainbow Dash is very sorry-"

"Where is she." Fluttershy said.

"Uh, why?" Twilight said. The others had come over to see her.

"Tell me where she is."

They all exchanged a look.

"We don't know." The elegant one said.

"Then let me go."

"I'm afraid we can't do that, Fluttershy." Twilight said. "First, we need to explain what happened."

"I already know what happened."

"Then why are you so angry at Rainbow Dash?" The pink one said.

Fluttershy was angered by this comment.

"Are you all stupid? She's the one that knocked me off the cloud!" She yelled.

They all looked surprised by this sudden outburst. Fluttershy sighed.

"Just leave me alone."

They stared blankly at her.

"Fluttershy, listen-" Twilight started.

"No, Twilight," Applejack said, "it's for the best. Leave her be."

Twilight tried to say something, but Applejack shook her head. Twilight sighed, and walked away. The others followed, leaving her to her thoughts.

* * *

It was the next day. She woke up, and rubbed her eyes. She was still sitting on the chair, but she realised that she now had full mobility of her body. _Now's my chance to escape!_ She stood up, and was about to turn around to leave, but was suddenly knocked by something. She stumbled forwards.

"You should go back to the chair." Said a voice behind her. She turned around to see a purple baby dragon standing with his arms crossed.

"Who are you?" She asked.

"Not that it really matters, I'm Spike. Twilight told me to watch you while she was asleep, because she couldn't keep the binding spell going while sleeping."

"Well, _Spike_, it was nice to meet you and all, but I would appreciate it if you let me go." She said.

"No can do, Fluttershy. Listen, if you don't go back to the chair, I'll have to wake up Twilight, and she'll just put you back in the chair." She hesitated. She needed to leave, but she wasn't sure she could escape from the unicorn if she woke up.

"Fine, I'm coming back." She announced.

She walked slowly back to the chair, while Spike watched carefully. She wouldn't be able to escape without the dragon noticing. Then she remembered, she has wings. _Maybe I can use that to my advantage. I doubt the baby dragon can fly very well, so maybe I could escape if I do it quickly._ She looked around, and saw a door upstairs that led to a terrace.

Without warning, she spread her wings and leaped up. She tried to flap them, but not moving them for over 24 hours took it's toll, and she crashed back down to the ground.

"Twilight!" The dragon yelled. There was no time to waste. She galloped up the stairs, knocked the door down to the terrace, and was about to run out when a purple orb brushed past her, and she turned around to see Twilight.

"Stop for a moment, Fluttershy!" Twilight yelled. But she wasn't stopping. She had already come this far.

She whirled around, and leaped over the terrace, purple orbs flying past her. She looked down, and realised just how high up she was. She was roughly 20 metres off the ground. She opened her wings again, but knew she didn't need to use them much, she just needed them to glide to safety. She hit the ground softly, and galloped off. When she was sure that she was far enough from Twilight's house, she stopped to decide where she would go next. _Where would Rainbow Dash be?_ She wondered. She realised she had absolutely no idea where Rainbow Dash might be. She looked around, and realised that she had run to the spot she had woken up. Where she had died.

Fluttershy was about to leave, when she saw sudden movement in her peripherals. She turned to the movement, and saw a pegasus running towards her, on the other side of the field. The pegasus had a blue coat of fur, and a rainbow mane. Fluttershy instantly knew who it was. It was the pegasus that had killed her.

Rainbow Dash.

* * *

Heh, so now you're going to see what Fluttershy is going to do. We all know her from the show for being quite a nice pegasus, how she is forgiving, and how she generally is quite quiet. But we have also seen her when she gets angry.


	8. Frustration

Wrote this while listening to "_Rainbow Factory_". Seriously, that song really inspires... what this chapter involves. Anyway, now that I have "rustled your jimmies", let's get started and read this magnificent... uh... read!

* * *

"Fluttershy!" Dash yelled. "Listen, we really need to figure some stuff out."

Fluttershy didn't reply. She walked towards her.

"Uh, Fluttershy?" Dash said worriedly. "You alright?"

She still gave no answer, and continued walking. Dash started to back away.

"Fluttershy?" Still no answer. Fluttershy started running at her. Dash tried to run, but Fluttershy was too fast, and knocked her down.

"What the hell Fluttershy?" Dash cried. "What are you-"

"You. You did this to me." Fluttershy said. She had Dash pinned down, and was on top of her. "This is all your fault." Her vision started to blur with tears.

"W-what? I thought you-"

"You knocked me off the cloud! You killed me!" She raised a hoof, and was about to bring it down on the pegasus, but Dash took the opportunity to push her off. She recovered quickly from the shove, and Dash was off the ground.

"Fluttershy, I'm so sorry about what I did, but-" Dash was cut off by Fluttershy's sudden charge, barely dodging out of the way. Fluttershy recovered, twisted round, only to be knocked down by Dash. She tried to get up, but Dash had pinned her.

"Fluttershy!" Dash yelled. She pulled one of her hooves out of Dash's grasp, and hit the blue Pegasus's stomach. Dash grunted, but showed no weakness from the blow. She quickly pinned her again.

"Why did you go to the barn, only to bring me here to... What are you doing?" Dash said. Tears were streaming down Fluttershy's face.

"Get off of me!" She screamed at Dash. She twisted onto her side, taking Dash with her. She rolled onto her feet, and was up again. Dash followed suit. There were no restraints anymore in Fluttershy's actions, and she wanted nothing more than that pegasus to die. Dash spread her wings, and was off the ground. Fluttershy did the same, her wings now fully functional. Dash tried to turn around to fly away, but seemed to misjudge the amount of time it would take for Fluttershy to reach her, and Dash was instantly tackled.

Fluttershy tried to get on top of Dash to use her to break the fall, but only succeeded in knocking Dash off course when she tried to fly away.

Fluttershy hit the ground hard, and the wind was knocked out of her. A loud thump was heard next to her, and she looked over to see Rainbow Dash on the ground. Despite the pain in her back left hoof, she got up, and walked over to Dash. The pegasus wasn't moving.

* * *

Oh man. Did I just kill off a fan favourite? Well, maybe, but more importantly, what would Dashy be like if she came back as a ghost? Vengeful? I mean, she never really explained herself for why she was so angry at Fluttershy. And by the way, do you have any idea how hard it is to write a fight between two ponies? They don't have hands! THEY CAN'T PUNCH EACH OTHER! So, yeah, this fanfic is actually going on longer than I meant it too, but more and more ideas keep popping into my head for this story! Anyways, stay tuned for more awesomeness!


	9. Regret

Hey, wrote this during classes. This is way more interesting than S_hakespeare_. I mean, I am superior, so why pay attention to a lesser being work, when I have my own to do? Exactly. Anyway, I just wanna let you guys know at this point I actually started this with different things in mind, but this story began to grow, so I really don't know where this will take me. I mean, I know the destination, but I don't know the way. Wow, that was really poetic! Anyway, that means I know how I plan to end it, but there are a few things I still have to decide. I really have little control over this story, my brain has always been _**too** _brilliant. Anyway, if you're still here, you shouldn't be. READ!

* * *

The red haze blurring her vision began to fade. Fluttershy's thoughts slowly became rational. She stood over the body of Rainbow Dash. She checked the pegasus's pulse: Dash was dead. She was surprised to find that she didn't feel anything. Not relief, sadness, despair, not anything. She was about to turn around to walk away, when she heard laughter in her ears, echoing inside her head. The sound didn't sound familiar to her.

_"Oh, seems somepony has made a terrible mistake." _Said a voice in her head. The voice sounded somewhat mocking and playful. The voice was definitely male in tone.

"What?" She was startled by the voice, "Who are you?" The voice laughed in her head.

_"What, you don't remember me? You know, that really hurts my feelings." _The voice sounded sarcastic.

"Where are you talking from?" She said, looking around her. Apart from Dash's corpse, there was nothing around her.

_"Why, Fluttershy, I'm right here!" _

"Stop playing games. Who are you."

_"You're no fun, Fluttershy. Anyway, I would rather not tell you." _Fluttershy was about to give an angry retort, when she heard:

_"It'll be much more fun if I **show** you."_

She was about to ask what he meant, but was cut off by a strange feeling in hear head. It was like her brain was being opened, and it also seemed like something was trying to escape. The feeling began to strengthen, until the point it began to feel painful. It was like her brain was being stretched now. She could hear whispers now, with more and more joining in, until the point it was just a loud whirl inside her head. She put her hooves over her head, cowering in pain. She could hear the being inside her head laughing.

The stretching pain intensified, and the whirling got even louder. In agony, she reared her head back and screamed. Her vision began darkening again, and the last thing she heard before losing consciousness was the voice laughing maniacally.

* * *

Fluttershy opened her eyes. Her vision was too unfocused to see exactly where she was, but she wasn't outside anymore. The pain in her head was gone, along with the laughing. There seemed to be voices around her, but sounded muffled. It sounded like Twilight was yelling at Pinkie Pie, and Rarity was going on one of her rants on how this is the worst possible thing to have happened. Then Fluttershy remembered. But she didn't just remember what had just happened. She remembered everything. Before she'd died. Before she'd become a ghost. And before she'd killed… Rainbow Dash.

The memory was still fresh in her mind. She remembered the rage she had felt. The way Rainbow Dash didn't even want to fight.

She remembered her at Twilight's house when she was trapped in the chair. She remembered her up in Cloudsdale trying to kill her. She remembered the time she had helped Rainbow Dash make that hurricane, the time she had supported her when Dash was doing her flying performance, and did her second _"Sonic Rainboom"_, and the time Dash had stood up for her when she was a filly, racing in her honour.

She began to cry, regret and sadness overcoming her. She felt sick, and wasn't entirely sure whether or not she was still standing. She began to hear laughter. The same laughter from before. But this time, there was no question who it was. She had met him before.

Dircord.

* * *

I reckon you're noticing by now how I like to end these chapters. It's usually someone's name. But this wasn't really much of a twist to some of you, I'm sure. The nature of Discord from before Fluttershy realised who it was was easy to recognise. It was more of a twist to **HER**, not you guys. Anyway, STAY TUNED FOR MORE AWESOMENESS!


	10. Resurrection

Jeez, writing is fun! Anyway, I just wanna give a few updates and reassurances. But that'll be at the bottom, so you have to read the awesome story to get to the super interesting notes I leave! Anyway, perspective change again! Wait, but RD died, didn't she!? Yeah, unexpected right? Anyway, read this stuff.

* * *

She was soaring through the clouds, the ground nowhere to be seen. The sky never seemed to end, just a never ending sea of clouds. Rainbow Dash loved it. There was peace up here. There used to be all sorts of chaos on the ground, but now there's no ground, so there's no chaos. Just the sky, and the clouds. She could go as fast as she wanted up here. There were no restraints to her speed. Nor anyone who would care.

She looked up, enjoying the feeling of the wind rushing through her mane, but something caught her eye. The sky was different now. Before, it was just blue sky, that would eventually lead to another layer of clouds to fly through. Now, there were dark spots above her. Like they were holes in the sky.

Curious, she flew up to them. The holes seemed to be moving in the same direction; towards the middle of all of them. She watched with interest, curious as to what would happen if they touched.

They all reached the centre at the same time. When they touched, they filled in the space between them, so that they joined together, making an even larger hole. Eventually, it was all one large whole, about 5 meters high and wide. She peered in. It was just pure darkness. It was extremely out of place in the clear blue sky.

Suddenly, she started to hear noises coming from the hole. Startled, she flew back a few metres. The noises sounded like voices. Listening carefully, she could just make out her own name, and "wake up". She flew closer to the hole.

The closer she got, the stranger she felt, like something was wrong. The hole got more and more inviting the closer she got. It felt like the place she was in started to feel less calm, and the hole felt like where she needed to go.

Suddenly, when she was just a few meters away, the hole lit up. Through it, she saw her friends. Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rarity. They looked relieved. She had found her friends! Suddenly, the place she was in felt a lot less amazing and inviting, compared to the world she used to be in.

Suddenly, the hole started closing quickly. She needed to get to her friends through the hole in time! She closed the few metres to the whole in a split second, barely making it through. The hole closed behind her.

She instantly leaped up. All of them, except Pinkie, jumped back, startled by her sudden erratic movement. Pinkie stood there, smiling, but then a look of worry came over her face.

"Rainbow Dash! Do you remember us? I'm Pinkie Pie! We are all your friends, and you've got to remember us!" Pinkie bounded up to her and started shaking her, repeating "Do you remember?" like a mantra.

"Pinkie Pie, of course I remember you!" Dash exclaimed. Pinkie stopped shaking her and pulled her in for a bear hug.

"Pinkie... can't... breath!" Dash huffed. Pinkie finally released her, and bounded off happily. _Typical Pinkie Pie,_ she thought.

Her friends all walked up to her.

"Rainbow Dash, you feelin alright?" Applejack said, frowning. "Any pain? Broken bones?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine." She reassured them. Then a thought came to her head.

"Uh, guys, what just happened? Last thing I remember was... Oh god, where's Fluttershy?"

They all exchanged a look.

"She's in the barn. It's locked though, she's not getting out anytime soon." Said Applejack. This reassured her a bit.

"Why was she so angry at me?" Dash asked. "I mean, she saved me during that fall, so she couldn't have been angry back then. Also, she showed up in the barn before to say she forgave me for trying to kill her." Their eyes widened at this.

"Uh, Rainbow Dash, when did this happen?" Twilight asked worriedly.

"You know, after I saw Fluttershy in your house, I slept in the barn after that, she found me there, and she said that she'd forgiven me. She said we'd talk under Cloudsdale, and then she attacked me when I got there!" This made them even more worried.

"Uh, Rainbow Dash, she stayed at my library that night. She didn't escape until noon."

"Escape?" Inquired Dash. "What do you mean 'escaped'?"

"We were trying to get her to remember what happened to her." explained Twilight. "She got too angry, so we decided to try again the next day. I couldn't keep her trapped in the chair while I slept, so I had Spike watch her the next morning. But I guess she was too fast for him."

"Wait," said Dash, "If she stayed with you that morning, then who talked to me in the barn?" They were all puzzled, and Dash decided to let it go.

"Alright, forget that for now. I just wanna know, what exactly happened after Fluttershy knocked me out?" They all looked away from her.

"What?" She asked. Twilight looked up at her.

"You weren't knocked out, Dash."

"What? Then why can't I remember anything else?" Twilight looked like she was about to answer, but was interrupted by a voice behind Dash.

"I killed you." She whirled around, and saw a pegasus with a pink mane, yellow coat of fur, and three butterflies as her cutie mark.

"Fluttershy." She snarled.

* * *

Woooooah! What's Fluttershy doing there? Wasn't she trapped in the barn! And what happened between Fluttershy and Discord in the barn while they were bringing back RD? You'll see next chapter. Oh right, the updates. I just want you guys to know, I haven't forgotten to explain certain things that I mentioned a while ago, like why RD killed Fluttershy in the first place. That's coming up. Also, I had a certain ending in mind, but then I thought, it's not very... epic. So, I was thinking about writing a sequel, to make the ending even more tense! So, yeah, just wanted to keep you guys updated. Bye!


	11. Finality

Hey guys, I should probably let you know, there will be a bit of violence. Now, don't worry, it's no "cupcakes", not even close, but, yeah, just wanted to warn you. Also, this chapter took me the entirety of my classes to finish. I practically had it done, then realised it wouldn't work for later. So, i rewrote the whole

damn thing. Anyway, hope you enjoy! Truly, I do. Like, a lot. Really. I mean it. Seriously, I hope you enjoy it. Loads. Yep.

"Well, that wasn't very nice, was it?" said Fluttershy, "I mean, after that beating I gave you, I would have thought you would be a little more polite to your superiors."

Dash felt the fury building up in her.

"Fluttershy, what do you think you're doing?" said a surprised Twilight. Fluttershy turned to the unicorn.

"I bet it was you who brought Rainbow Dash back, huh Twilight?" Fluttershy said, pointing an accusatory hoof at Twilight; "I guess you like her more than me, since you didn't do the same for me when I died."

Twilight broke her eye contact with Fluttershy and looked down at the ground in shame.

"It was... too late for you," managed Twilight. Fluttershy snorted derisively in response.

"How did you get out of the barn?" Applejack asked.

Fluttershy laughed, "Oh, that barn was quite weak, it broke down once the door had been kicked out of the way."

Dash couldn't believe it. She could take Fluttershy's insults but she couldn't stand by while she abused her friends - especially after she so remorselessly broke Applejack's barn! But she couldn't let her anger get the best of her. She couldn't escape the feeling that this all seemed so unnatural. Something was wrong with Fluttershy. Surely she couldn't be so heartless.

"Discord!" Applejack breathed, "Discord did this to her!"

"What?" Dash said, looking over at the orange pony.

"When Discord reversed our personalities, this is how Fluttershy acted!" Dash hadn't seen any of her friends being affected by Discord. When her personality was reversed, her lack of loyalty had made her abandon her friends until she was cured.

"Hey, pig!" Fluttershy yelled at Pinkie, walking up to her. The pink pony trembled. "What about you? Did you try to save me?" Pinkie just stared at the ground, too ashamed to meet the yellow pegasus' eyes. "Oh, I see. You couldn't relieve your fat ass from all those sweets you eat even when one of your dear friends was in trouble."

Rage took hold of Dash and she took off from the ground, spread her wings, and shot towards Fluttershy. But after moving only a few inches, she felt something grab onto her tail; preventing her from moving any further.

"Dash!" Applejack's voice sounded muffled through Dash's rainbow tail, "Stop, that's just what she wants! We can't let her win!" But Dash wasn't listening. She pulled away harder, attempting to yank herself forward, but Applejack was too strong.

Fluttershy smiled devilishly, "Oh, I just had a brilliant idea... The plan was to kill your friends, then when I saw that you were alive again I thought I'd just kill you. But I just realised," She lashed at Pinkie, hooking a leg around her neck in a choke hold, "Why do one when I could do both?"

Fluttershy had gone too far. Dash had to stop her, before her friends were hurt.

Desperation fueled Rainbow Dash, and she pulled with all her might against Applejack, and finally slipped free.

Dash bolted forward, and had reached Fluttershy in a split second. She had Fluttershy pinned down.

"Fluttershy, stop. I know this isn't you, you have to snap out of it!" Fluttershy snarled at her, and used her wings to push herself off the ground. Dash, caught off guard, was thrown off of her, and barely managed to avoid Fluttershy's follow up charge. They flew, circling each other. Rainbow Dash knew this battle would just be between her and Fluttershy. The rest couldn't fly, and whatever spell Twilight would attempt to use might hit her instead of Fluttershy. There would be no help.

"Heh, this always seems to happen," Fluttershy said, "You remember the first time we fought? Well, it wasn't really a fight. You just straight up murdered me." Dash ignored the comment. Getting distracted would get her killed.

"You sacrificed yourself for me," Dash said. Fluttershy seemed startled by this comment, and almost lost her balance in the air. Dash took the opportunity to attempt another pin. She flew straight at Fluttershy, but the yellow pegasus had already recovered. Dash ducked under Fluttershy's swipe, and circled behind her. She took advantage of the momentary confusion to put Fluttershy in a headlock. Fluttershy relaxed her wings and tried to get out of the hold, but Rainbow Dash had a tight grip on her. Dash looked around at her friends quickly, saw their scared faces, and crashed through a window above them, taking Fluttershy with her. At least this way, her friends could get away if this went badly.

Suddenly, Fluttershy flipped backwards, changing their direction down and weakening Dash's lock. Fluttershy twisted to her right, causing them to spin out of control. Dash couldn't hold her any longer and was forced to relinquish the hold, and Fluttershy flew up. Rainbow Dash was still spinning uncontrollable but was able to glance up and see Fluttershy was charging down at her. Dash was able to twist to the right, and felt Fluttershy's dive clip her side.

Dash probably would have plummeted to the ground if she hadn't tried a last desperate attempt for survival, and grabbed at Fluttershy's mane. They were plummeting towards the ground. Dash pulled herself onto Fluttershy, until she had her hind legs on Fluttershy's back, and pushed off. She instantly regained control of her flight, and headed upwards. She floated in mid-air and watched Fluttershy land safely on the ground.

Fluttershy had landed close to the building they had crashed out of moments ago. Fluttershy looked at the room, then up at Rainbow Dash, and smiled.

"Race you!" Fluttershy called out to her, then took off towards the building. Dash took off to intercept her, using all of her remaining strength and energy to get there as quickly as possible. She didn't even want to think about what Fluttershy would do to her friends if she couldn't stop her from getting to that building. Even though Dash had always had a speed advantage over Fluttershy, Dash soon realised that Fluttershy was much closer and that she wasn't going to get there soon enough. She only had one choice: Use a sonic rainboom. Whenever she triggered one of her rainbooms, she would instantly double her speed, and that's what she needed. But she would be going dangerously fast, and it would be difficult to control her movement at that speed. But it was her only option.

She could see the bubble appearing around her, signifying she was nearing the speed needed for a sonic rainboom. She saw Fluttershy only a few meters from the room. A few more seconds, and it would be too late. She closed her eyes, and felt the bubble forming in front of her. It started to change into a rainbow colour. It was working!

Suddenly, the bubble imploded, and then exploded in a beautiful display of colours, that would stretch across the sky for miles. But she didn't care about the explosion, she only cared about getting to Fluttershy. Her speed had indeed doubled, and she was suddenly directly behind Fluttershy. Fluttershy turned around and saw her, but it was too late. Rainbow Dash smashed into Fluttershy, knocking her way off course, and into the wall. Instead of just slamming against the stone wall, she was thrown through it. Fluttershy flew across the room, and collided against the far wall. Dash flew in through the window, easily slowing herself down, skidding to a halt in front of Fluttershy. The pegasus was in a heap at the base of the wall, barely conscious. Fluttershy looked up at Dash; her left front leg was twisted the wrong way, and blood leaked out of her mouth. Slamming into that wall had done some serious damage. She wouldn't survive that hit. Suddenly, the finality of what she had done caused the bloodlust of the battle to leave her instantly and she rushed towards Fluttershy's broken body.

"Oh no. Fluttershy! I-I didn't- I wasn't... I'm so sorry," Dash's legs felt weak beneath her, and was barely able to stand. She felt sick. She hadn't intended for this to happen to Fluttershy, she was only trying to stop her.

"Rainbow Dash..." Fluttershy rasped, her eyes devoid of the savagery that had just been plaguing them. "I'm... sorry..." Dash felt tears forming in her eyes. This was her fault.

"I'm...I-I'm..." Fluttershy coughed, causing more blood to leak from her mouth. Fluttershy started crying. Dash couldn't tell if it was because of the pain, or something else. "I'm... sorry... I couldn't..." Fluttershy faltered, and for a moment Dash thought the pegasus had died, but then Fluttershy's eyes moved to look at her.

"Sorry... I couldn't... save..." she let out one last shuddering breath, and she was gone.

Dash felt her tears streaming down her face. She knew what Fluttershy was trying to say. She put her hoof over Fluttershy's face, and closed the pegasus' eyes. There was no way the Fluttershy who had taunted them just a few moments ago would have apologised for something like that. Discord must have released his control over her when she'd been hit. Dash hadn't killed her enemy. She'd killed her friend.

"Twilight," Pinkie was saying, "Can't you bring her back again?" Twilight shook her head.

"Her body isn't really there. She's just a ghost. The spell won't work on her now."

"Applejack," Dash called back to her friend, her tone neutral.

"Y-yeah?"

"You said Discord did this to her, right?" Applejack nodded. Dash turned to her friends.

"This is all Discord's fault. Discord is the one who put the spell on Fluttershy. He's the one who killed Fluttershy. We need to stop him." Her friends nodded in agreement. She looked back at Fluttershy.

"I swear, Fluttershy," she said quietly, so her friends wouldn't hear, though her voice was still full of malice, "I'll make that bastard pay."

* * *

Oh man, Fluttershy is dead!? Like, and she can't be brought back? Yeah, sad to say, Twilight won't be able to resurrect her. Oh, also, I will go into detail on who Fluttershy failed to save later, I'm not so lazy I'm gonna leave it at that. Also, just wanna let you guys know, this is the end of this story. I don't mean I won't continue this story, I mean I'm gonna start a new one! It'll start maybe a little after this ended. Stay tuned, shouldn't take longer than maybe a few days. Seeya then!


	12. Heretofore

Rainbow Dash was bored. Today was meant to be her day off from keeping the skies clear, so she figured she could hang out with her friends all day. But, her friends were all busy. Princess Celestia had called for Applejack, to discuss the productivity from the Apple farm, so Twilight went with her to keep her company. Rarity was moping over how she couldn't go, and Pinkie Pie... to be honest, Dash didn't think Pinkie was doing anything, but it would take too long to find her. You don't go looking for Pinkie, she finds you.

She stretched herself out over the cloud, deciding to try to take a nap. She usually did this when she couldn't be bothered to practice her flying in her free time. She had almost drifted to sleep, when she heard a faint voice, calling her name. The voice sounded really close, so she didn't know why it sounded so faint.

She opened her eyes, and saw a certain pegasus, with pink hair and a yellow coat of fur, flying next to her,

"Um, excuse me." Fluttershy was saying, in her quiet voice, "can you please wake up?" Dash had forgotten about Fluttershy. Maybe she wasn't busy.

"Oh, hey Fluttershy. Wanna hang out?" Fluttershy did her usual 'look at the ground to avoid eye contact' thing.

"Um, kind of. Uh, somepony was looking for you, so I told her I'd find you."

"Somepony's looking for me?" Rainbow Dash said, smiling. Finally, something to do. "Who?"

"Well, um-" Fluttershy started.

"Is she up there?" Yelled a voice from below. Dash thought she recognised the voice.

"Is that Scootaloo?" Dash asked excitedly. Scootaloo was the coolest filly in Ponyville, and she had recently taken her under her wing, to teach her her tricks.

"Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo yelled, "can you come down here?"

"Sure thing!" said Dash, getting onto her feet. "Flutttershy, you coming?" Fluttershy nodded. Dash spread her wings, and zoomed off, going straight down. She flipped onto her side, veering right, and spinned around Scootaloo, pulling off quadruple backflips and spins, until she finally descended onto the ground. Scootaloo clapped her hooves.

"Wow, that was great, Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo was yelling. Dash smiled, and did her best to look modest. Fluttershy quietly descended next to her.

"Hey, kiddo," Dash said, smiling, "what did you wanna do? Want me to teach you how to do a backflip in the air, or create your own small tornado?" Scootaloo nodded, but she looked a little unsure.

"What's the matter?" Scootaloo looked at the ground, shuffling nervously.

"Well, uh, I wanted to ask you something..." Scootaloo said. Dash nodded, trying to encourage the filly.

"Well, what is it?" Dash said, growing impatient. Scootaloo took a deep breath.

"I was wondering if you could teach me how to fly?" Scootaloo said quickly. She looked relieved, but a little worried at the same time. Dash was confused for a moment.

"You don't know how to fly?" Scootaloo shook her head. Dash put her hoof under the fille's chin, lifting her head to meet her eyes.

"Well then, we gotta fix that right away!" Scootaloo looked dumbfounded for a moment.

"You're not disappointed in me for not knowing how to fly?" Dash shook her head.

"I am disappointed, don't get me wrong." Scootaloo looked down at the ground again. "But not at you." Scootaloo looked up at her again. "I'm disappointed in myself for not teaching you that way before now!" Scootaloo looked relieved, then excited.

"So you're gonna teach me how to fly?" Scootaloo asked. Dash smiled and nodded. Dash lowered herself to the ground.

"Get on." Dash said, gesturing to her back. Scootaloo looked nervous. "What's the matter?" Dash asked.

"Well, it's just..." Scootaloo said, "I thought we could practice down here. You know, on the ground." Dash snorted.

"Come on, you wan't to practice flying on the ground?" Scootaloo nodded. "Come on, what's the worst that could happen?"

"Is that a trick question?" Scootaloo asked. Dash felt somepony nudge her shoulder. She turned around and saw Fluttershy. She had forgotten the other pegasus was there.

"Um, Rainbow Dash?" Fluttershy said quietly, "I was thinking, maybe it would be safer to practice down here." Dash was surprised.

"What? Fluttershy, don't you remember when you learned how to fly? We were up in Cloudsdale! You know, where there isn't any ground?" Fluttershy looked ready to contradict her, but it looked she couldn't think of another statement. Fluttershy relented.

"I guess it's ok then... but you should make sure she won't fall." Dash rolled her eyes.

"Oh, are you sure? Cause I was gonna have Scootaloo backflip her way to Cloudsdale." Dash said sarcastically. Fluttershy sighed. Dash turned back to Scootaloo.

"Alright, get on," Dash said, "We're going up to Cloudsdale!"

* * *

So, yeah, this is me doing a weird sort of prequel. So, yeah, new parts coming out this week. Also, I was having some weird issues in the editing, so I couldn't put my notes on the top. Sorry. Love- I mean, mutual feelings for you guys!


	13. Approval

The flight to Cloudsdale didn't take very long, especially since it was Dash flying. Scootaloo kept asking questions on the way, like what it was like there, or how high up it was. Dash hadn't been aware that the filly had never been to Cloudsdale.

Finally, Dash could see the cloud formation in the distance.

"There it is, Scootaloo!" Dash yelled over the wind. "Cloudsdale." Dash turned her head to look at the filly. Scootaloo was looking at Cloudsdale with awe, with her mouth wide open and her eyes wide, despite the wind pushing back at them. Dash smiled.

They finally landed on a small cloud formation, just outside of Cloudsdale. There were no other ponies there. Dash descended onto the ground carefully, as to not accidentally tip off Scootaloo. The filly jumped off of her, and wandered around the cloud.

"It feels just like the ground!" Scootaloo said, kicking at the cloud beneath her. Fluttershy landed next to Dash. She had forgotten that Fluttershy was following them. Dash walked over to the filly.

"Ok, so now we're gonna teach you how to fly!" Dash said to Scootaloo, "now, I want you to crouch down on the ground, and spread yourself out." Scootaloo followed her instructions. "Now, spread your wings, and then jump forward. I don't want you to flap your wings, I just want you to glide forward. This will show me how strong your wings are when it comes to holding your body weight." Scootaloo nodded, and started counting up from three.

"One," She spread her wings.

"Two," She leaned onto her hind legs, bending back slightly. Dash nodded her encouragement. Scootaloo took a deep breath.

"Three!" And she leaped forwards, and was gliding through the air. She dropped slowly onto the ground again. _Not bad,_ Dash thought.

"Alright," Dash said, "that was pretty good. But-"

"Wow, Scootaloo! That was great!" said Fluttershy. Dash glared at the pegasus. Fluttershy glared back, which surprised Dash. Usually, whenever she glared at her friend, she won whatever the argument was. Dash sighed.

"Alright, fine, that was great... for your first attempt." Scootaloo smiled at her.

"Ok, now we need to teach you how to keep yourself in the air." said Dash, "you up for that?" Scootaloo nodded, still smiling.

"Ok, now I want you to do the same as before, but this time when you take off, I want you to flap your wings, and keep yourself in the air. You don't need to worry about moving in the air just yet. I only need you to focus on keeping yourself up."

"Ok," said Scootaloo, "but what if I can't keep myself up?"

"Just keep yourself up for as long as you can then." said Dash. Scootaloo nodded, and got into position.

"Ok, I'll count for you this time. Ready?"

"Ready!"

"Ok. One... two... three!" Scootaloo jumped up, and flapped her wings as quickly as she could. Dash could see she was struggling, but she was keeping herself in the air.

"Alright, Scootaloo!" Dash cheered, "come on, just a little more!" Scootaloo reacted to Dash's cheer, and instantly flew even higher. Dash was surprised. She hadn't seen a filly fly so high so quickly before.

"I'm doing it, Dash! I'm doing it!" cried Scootaloo.

"Yeah you are, kiddo!" Dash yelled. "ok, that's long enough. Now drop down slowly-" Scootaloo instantly stopped flapping her wings, and dropped down. Dash realised Scootaloo was high up enough from the cloud for the fall to be fatal. Dash leaped up from the ground, and zipped right beneath Scootaloo, just in time. She felt the filly land on her back. She felt Scootaloo put her legs around her. Dash descended softly onto the ground

"It's ok, kiddo. I got you." Scootaloo started crying. "What's the matter?"

"I... I didn't..." The filly said between sobs, her tears falling onto Dash's mane, "I couldn't... I'm so sorry, Rainbow Dash." Dash turned her head to Scootaloo and frowned at her.

"What are you talking about?" Dash asked. Scootaloo looked up at her.

"You told me to fly. And I... I failed you." _Of course!_ Dash thought. Recently, her and Scootaloo had become really close, and acted like sisters. Having an older sister must put a lot of pressure on you. Scootaloo had always seemed to respect her, or admire her. But she also didn't want to disappoint her. Dash smiled.

"Are you kidding? That was amazing! I mean, come on, you have never flied before, but you still managed to fly straight up! That was way better than I thought any other pegasus could do on their first fly!" Scootaloo sniffed, but had stopped crying.

"Really?"

"Really." Dash nodded to her, "in fact, do you want to know a secret?" Scootaloo nodded. "but you can't tell anypony. If you do, I'm gonna deny it." Scootaloo smiled and nodded. The last time Dash had said that, she had told Scootaloo how she used to be afraid of the same scary stories that Scootaloo was afraid of.

Dash moved her head closer to the filly.

"You did better than me." Dash whispered. Scootaloo looked confused for a moment.

"What?" Scootaloo asked, not sure what the pegasus was talking about. Dash nodded.

"When I was being taught how to fly by my dad, it took me weeks before I could even move sideways in the air, let alone go up! But you could do it immediately." Scootaloo looked speechless. Dash slid the filly off of her, and turned so they were facing each other.

"You know what?" Dash said, smiling, "I reckon your the most talented filly in Equestria!" Scootaloo smiled back at her, and they hugged.

"Thanks, sis." Scootaloo said.

* * *

Ok, so I just wanted to take a moment and thank the US, for giving me the majority of my views. Also want to thank us Australians, you guys came in second. I also want to thank every single other country in the world for your support, every little bit helps! (Still no views from Antarctica though...) Hey, here's a bit of info for you. Did you know that I was gonna have this as just 6 chapters? It would have Fluttershy still in the library, stuck in the chair, Rainbow Dash shows up, and then she forgives her, and they live happily ever after. Pthh, happy endings are stupid. Of course, I'm stupid, so you never know.

*UPDATE* Ok, so I usually write at least ONE chapter each day at school, but I was really moody today, so I continued the dream scape (HINT!), but I can't publish that story yet, so, you'll have to wait longer for the next chapter. Sorry, but I was in the sad today. ENGLISH FTW!*


	14. Fragments

Hi, sorry this took so long, but I was a little busy writing on of my other projects, and forgot how important this one was! So, I got right on it, and yeah. So, this chapter is a little longer than the others (except for the "big fight" one), and quite a bit of stuff happens too. Read, minions!

* * *

"I'm sorry girls," Celestia said, "but I cannot allow such a horrendous act." Rainbow Dash and her friends had gone to Celestia for her help to deal with Discord, but it seemed that not only would she not help, she would forbid them from their task. "I am truly sorry for what has happened to Fluttershy, and to all of you for that matter, but what you ask of me goes against my beliefs, and I cannot allow you to do this. I'm sorry it has to be this way."

"But she's our friend!" Twilight exclaimed, "we can't let something like this happen again!"

"Also," Dash said, "isn't it the only way to stop him now? Without all of the elements of harmony, isn't it the only way?" Celestia sighed, shaking her head.

"Even if it is, that doesn't mean it's right-"

"Is it right what Discord did to Fluttershy?" Dash yelled, cutting the princess off, "or to me? Or to all of us?" Celestia looked surprised by this sudden outburst.

"She's right, princess." Applejack said, "not doing this wouldn't be right." Her friends all nodded in agreement. Celestia still resisted, shaking her head.

"Even if I agreed, it's not that easy. I don't even know how Discord escaped, or how powerful he is."

"That doesn't matter!" Pinkie suddenly yelled, surprising all of them, "Fluttershy was-IS our friend, and what happened to her isn't right!"

"Pinkie's right!" Dash yelled, joining in, "and we can't let it happen to anyone else. What if he goes for you next? Or your sister?"

"Then what do you propose we do then, Rainbow Dash?" Celestia asked.

"We send out the army, and help them kill Discord."

"It's not that easy." Celestia said, "you've already seen his power. Do you really think we could stop him so easily?"

"It's not just for revenge, you do realise that, right?" Rarity yelled, "I mean, knowing Discord, he'll probably try to take over all of Equestria!"

"We don't have to resort to violence, we could always reason with him-"

"You want to reason with Discord?" Twilight interrupted, "come on, you must know how illogical that is. There's only one way to stop him now, you know that." Celestia sighed.

"I was hoping I could convince you, but I suppose I have to do this..." Celestia turned around slowly, and started to walk away.

"Hey, we're not done yet!" Dash yelled, "we are still going to do this, with or without your help-" suddenly, Dash felt an invisible force push her back. She felt the impact of herself hitting glass, and was flung out of the window. She got a glance downward, and saw that she was heading for the ocean, of which Canterlot overlooked.

She spread her wings and tried to recover, but it was too late anyway. Even if she could recover, she would hit the water immediately. Refusing to accept that this is how it ends, Dash did a last desperate attempt to save herself, by attempting to fly straight down, so the impact wouldn't break her bones.

The water was coming closer and closer, and she was still struggling to get some control, although trying to fly straight down was working much better than trying to stabilise her fall. The water came closer and closer, until she could reach out and touch it, and then... there was nothing.

* * *

Dash woke up, and sprang out of bed. She heard Fluttershy squeal across from her.

"Woah, you ok Fluttershy?" Dash asked, flying over to her.

"Oh, no. It's fine." Fluttershy said, quiet as usual. "you startled me, that's all." Dash sighed, and walked to the kitchen. "I just wanted to thank you for letting me stay with you for the night. My cottage was too far off, and it was really late."

"Hey, don't your animals need feeding?"  
"No, Spike said he would take care of them while Scootaloo and I went with you to Cloudsdale, although I didn't tell him I would be gone the night. I should probably head back now."

"You sure? You're welcome to stay a little longer."  
"No thanks, Angel always needs me in the mornings. His breakfast needs to be just right, or he'll be angry all day." Fluttershy sighed, "oh, by the way, did Scootaloo stay here as well?"

"Oh, right! I totally forgot to tell you!" Dash remembered what Scootaloo had told her after they had tried flying, and were flying to Dash's house.

"What is it?"

"Turns out she was living on the streets by herself!"

"Oh, really? I had no idea!"

"Yeah, she asked if she could stay with me for a while. I asked whether her parents would mind, turns out they abandoned her! She doesn't remember why they did though."

"Oh, wow. Although it does explain why I haven't seen her parents around before." Dash nodded.

"I asked her if she wanted to stay with me until she grew up, and wow, was she happy to hear that. I guess she's moved in now."

"That's so nice of you, Rainbow Dash!" Fluttershy exclaimed, "it's great you would be willing to share so much of your time with somepony else." Dash smiled.

"Anyway, I should wake her up. I promised I would teach her about flying all day today. Should be fun-"

Dash was interrupted by a yell coming from outside.

"Was that Scootaloo?" Dash said, panicked. Outside her house was just open air, with a long drop down. Dash and Fluttershy both flew out the front door, which was open for some reason.

"Scootaloo?" Dash yelled. "Where are you?" Dash heard Fluttershy talking on the other side of the house. She must have gone around the other side. Dash flew around her house, and finally saw Scootaloo. She was flying back to the house. She looked tired.

"Scootaloo!" Dash yelled, pushing Fluttershy out of the way. "I'm coming! Just hang on!" Dash flew as fast as she could to her, desperation fuelling her to go even faster. Scootaloo started to fall.

"Sis, help!" Dash heard Scootaloo yell, before dropping down fast. The sudden change in direction made Dash fly straight over her. She grunted in frustration, and flew down.

She started to speed up, getting closer and closer to Scootaloo, but the ground was coming too close. Soon, they would both reach the ground, and then... Dash reached out to Scootaloo.

"Scootaloo! Grab my hoof!" Scootaloo reached up, and she grabbed her, and pulled her in. They embraced each other, despite the ground coming closer. But it was already too late, and they would hit the ground before either of them could stabilise.

"I'm so sorry, Dash." She heard Scootaloo saying, "I just wanted to impress you. I-"

Suddenly, Dash felt something pull her up, and Scootaloo was thrown from her arms.

"NO!" Dash screamed, struggling against the force holding her back, and broke away from it. She looked down again. Scootaloo was looking up at her, with her legs folded across her, with her back to the ground. Dash flew down, and landed in front of the filly.

"Please no," she whispered, tears welling up in her eyes, "please, don't do this to me." Dash got closer to take a closer look. Scootaloo wasn't breathing. She put her hooves on the filly's chest, and pushed, her tears falling onto Scootaloo.

"Please don't leave me, sis. Oh god, please don't leave me!" But Scootaloo didn't wake up. Dash buried her face in the filly's chest.

"Please... don't go. I need you, sis. Please..." Dash started sobbing, her breaths coming in wheezes. She felt a hoof on her shoulder, but didn't turn around. She stayed like that for a few minutes, crying onto the dead filly's body.

"I... I wasn't fast enough... I couldn't save you..." Dash whispered, "I... failed you. I'm so sorry." The hoof on her shoulder shook her.

"Dash, come on." Fluttershy whispered, "we have to get help." Dash realised something, at that moment. It wasn't her who had failed her sister. It was...

"Fluttershy." She growled, slowly turning around. The hoof on her shoulder quickly retracted, and she heard hoofsteps backing away from her.

"Dash, I-"

"This..." Dash said quietly, turning until they were facing each other, "this is all YOUR fault. If you hadn't have grabbed me, I wouldn't have dropped her!"

"Dash, if I didn't stop you, you would have died-"

"SO YOU THOUGHT SHE SHOULD?" Dash screamed at the pegasus. Fluttershy, startled, stepped back. "I... I could have saved her... but you... YOU WOULDN'T LET ME!" Dash started advancing on the pegasus. Fluttershy ascended into the air, and backed away.

"Dash, I'm sorry, but I-"

"Oh, you're sorry, are you?" Dash said angrily, "if you're so sorry, then why couldn't you let me save her?"

"Because if I didn't, you both would have died-"

"YOU DON'T KNOW THAT!" Dash was furious now, and was also in the air, "YOU DON'T KNOW THAT I COULDN'T HAVE SAVED HER! SHE WAS... she was... my sister..." Dash looked down at the ground, "and now, she's gone... all because of you. I had a sister at last, and now she's gone, all because you wouldn't let me save her! And now-" Dash looked up at where Fluttershy was, but she was gone. Dash looked up, and saw Fluttershy flying back up to Cloudsdale.

"Get back here!" Dash screamed, chasing the fleeing pegasus. Fluttershy was heading up to Cloudsdale, where she would be safe from Dash's rage. Dash had the advantage of speed, but Fluttershy had a good head start.

"Why did you have to... WHY DIDN'T YOU LET ME SAVE HER?" Dash screamed at Fluttershy, tears of rage streaming down her face. She could hear Fluttershy's panicked breaths as she closed in.

"Dash... wait... I'm sorry!" Fluttershy yelled, but Dash was too far gone. The death of her sister was too much for Dash. Her rage was driving her to kill the one who took her sister away from her.

Fluttershy had almost reached Cloudsdale, but Dash was close on her tail. They were on the outskirts of the town now, with small patches of clouds around them. They were still far from any populated areas.

Dash was finally above Fluttershy, but the yellow pegasus was not aware of this. Fluttershy turned around, but didn't see Dash flying above her. The pegasus looked relieved, and slowed down. Dash instantly flew straight down, but Fluttershy had jumped backwards, having tricked Dash into thinking that she was unaware that she knew where she was.

Dash smashed into the ground, and everything went dark.

* * *

So, yeah. You're reading these for some reason... Cupcakes!

*UPDATE* Ok, sorry this took so long, but I have finally written this chapter. I should warn you guys, this story will probably get much more dark from here on it. I'll keep the teen rating (again, it won't be a "cupcakes" deal), so it's not TOO dark or gruesome, but... Just keep that in mind. Anyway, I'll publish the chapter in a few hours, so, yeah. Oh, and I'm not making a sequel (at least, not anytime soon), I'll keep all chapters in THIS story. I don't know how many chapters are left, I could only have 5 left, or I might not even be halfway yet. I don't know, I keep getting better ideas. Oops, rambling. Seeya!


	15. Betrayel

Yeah, sorry this one took so long, but I had a lot of personal stuff going on. Anyway, I again want to warn you that from here on out, the story WILL get darker. Not intensely, but you know... You're still here?

* * *

Twilight looked in horror as Dash was flung out of the window, smashing through the glass. The cyan pegasus had been caught off guard, and had no defence ready in time, and was gone from sight.

"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight screamed, galloping to the window. She looked through the broken glass, and saw her friend fading into the distance, headed for the ocean. She tried to stop Dash with her magic, but it was too late. Dash was too far off, and disappeared into the ocean.

Twilight heard one of her friends yell out behind her, and twisted around. Celestia was holding up Applejack with her magic, and looked ready to smash her against a nearby wall.

"NO!" Twilight screamed, racing towards her friends, "STOP!" Celestia didn't listen, and proceeded to throw the cowpony towards the wall, with amazing force. Twilight quickly pointed her horn at Applejack, and focused all her power to try to stop her. Applejack's momentum was pushing against her magic. Twilight felt like Applejack was pulling against her, and was suddenly flung off her feet into the air, but she never relinquished her grasp on her friend.

Applejack hit the far wall headfirst, but with much less force than it would have been. Twilight fell to the floor, and slid a few feet. She looked over to her friend, and saw she was still conscious, and didn't seem to be in much pain. Twilight twisted her attention to her former mentor, and saw she was pointing her horn at her. A bright blue bolt came fast at her from Celestia's horn, and she barely had time to roll onto her side, the bolt missing her head by inches. Another bolt was headed her way, and she quickly got to her feet, and jumped to the side, dodging the bolt yet again, and used her magic to create a barrier in front of her, blocking any more attacks. She could see Celestia smiling at her through it.

"Impressive, Twilight." the alicorn said, gesturing to the barrier.

"Why are you doing this, princess?" Twilight yelled, "What's gotten into you?"

"Oh, why, Twilight. I thought YOU of all people would be able to tell who I am." Celestia exclaimed, "we have some unfinished business." Celestia then proceeded to go into a crouched position, and started to glow. Twilight continued to watch as the glowing became more and more intense, the light starting to fill the room. Twilight remembered her friends were still in the room, and turned to see Pinkie and Rarity standing, looking in horror at the events going on around them. Twilight pulled her friends behind the safety of the barrier with her horn, and did the same for Applejack. She had done this just in time, as no sooner had she pulled in the orange pony, had the light around Celestia exploded. Twilight barely managed to keep the barrier up against the force of the explosion, staggering back a few feet.

Twilight looked up, but her vision was clouded by dust filling the room from the explosion. She could hear laughter, but it didn't sound like Celestia anymore. It was somepony else, and it sounded familiar. Twilight turned to her friends.

"Listen," she whispered, "I need you three to get out of here."

"What?" Applejack exclaimed, "we aint leaving you here with her! She killed Rainbow Dash!"

"We don't know that. She could have recovered and flown off." Twilight explained, looking back at Celestia. She still couldn't see her through the dust. "Look, I don't know if she survived, but she was headed for the ocean. She might still be alright, and I need you to find her." Applejack looked indecisive.

"Remember how Celestia said 'we have some unfinished business'?" Twilight reminded her, "she was talking to me." Applejack looked like she was starting to understand. Twilight smiled at her.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. You just make sure Rainbow Dash is alright." Applejack finally relented, nodding to her.

"Alright, fine, Twilight. But how do we get out-" Applejack tried to ask, but Twilight teleported them out of the doors to the palace. Twilight felt better now knowing that her friends were safe.

Twilight turned around to find that the dust had cleared from the explosion, and she could see her opponent. But it wasn't Celestia anymore. Her enemy had a long, light blue mane, with a dark blue coat of fur, and was wearing a purple wizard hat and cloak.

"Twilight Sparkle." Trixie said, smiling at her, "like I said, we have some unfinished business."

* * *

OMG TRIXIE IS MY FAV PONY TRIXIE FTW! If that is what you're thinking right now... I am so sorry for whatever happens. Oh, don't worry, that wasn't a spoiler or a hint. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this, but yeah, do stuff and grub and drink and... How you doing? Thursday.


	16. Decampment

Surprise! I wrote two chapters! You're welcome! No, really, stop thanking me! Oh, you don't mean that. Oh, I'm sure your life would still continue without this story. Ok, witty comments aside, hurry up and read the story!

* * *

Applejack was galloping from the palace, with Pinkie and Rarity trailing behind her. She could see the bridge connecting the palace to Canterlot. There were guards posted there, protecting the palace. _Maybe they could help Twilight! _Applejack thought.

"Hey, uh... guard ponies!" Applejack yelled, not far from the bridge now, "we need your help!" The guards turned to the three ponies charging at them, and pointed their horns at them. Applejack's eyes widened.

"Pinkie! Rarity! Get down!" she yelled. They all ducked down, and heard the magic knives flying over their heads.

"What the hell do ya'll think your doin?" Applejack yelled, and ducked down again to avoid the next barrage of knives.

"Come on, we need to get out of here!" Rarity yelled to her. Applejack nodded.

"Follow me!" she yelled to her friends, charging to the side of the bridge. The guards continued to fire knives at them, and were advancing to cut them off from the bridge.

"Hurry!" Applejack yelled, the side of the bridge coming closer.

"Uh, guys?" Pinkie yelled, "where are we going?" A knife passed right in front of the pink pony's face, making her yelp.

"Come on, almost there!" Applejack yelled, ducking and weaving through the waves of magic knives. Rarity saw they were headed for the side of the bridge.

"You're not seriously suggesting we jump, are you?" Rarity yelled, using her magic to push knives getting too close to her.

"Yall got a better plan?" Applejack yelled back. Rarity shook her head. "Then yes, I'm suggestin we jump!" They had almost made it to the bridge, with maybe a few more meters to go. The guards were too far to cut them off at this point. They had been on the other side of the bridge, as they didn't expect to have to attack ponies coming _from _the palace.

"Alright, get ready to jump!" Applejack yelled. They had reached the bridge, and were galloping full speed for the sides. On her next bound, Applejack crouched down lower, preparing to jump off the side. Suddenly, a knife buried itself in her right hind leg's ankle. Applejack cried out in pain, falling to the ground. Another knife caught her in her left shoulder, making her yelp. Suddenly, she felt a force pick her up, and toss her off the side of the bridge. The pain in her legs was nearly unbearable, and the knives felt like they were boiling hot.

She flew through the air, and landed in the water. _It's cold_, she thought. It was all she could think, as she started to sink into the water. Applejack tried to swim back up, but she could only move two of her legs, and couldn't go up. She started to panic. Suffocation was one of the things that scared Applejack the most. She desperately tried to kick up with her other legs, but the pain was too intense, almost making her pass out. Her lungs felt tight, like they were imploding. Her efforts started to weaken, and she started to sink faster. She felt her back hit the bottom. Her vision started to darken, but she could still see through them. She could see some fish above her, just swimming around, without a care in the world. She envied them. One of the fish, which was pink, started to grow in size. Applejack was too far gone to care much about this, and just watched with slight interest. The shape grew bigger and bigger, and started to morph into another shape. Dimly, she realised it was her friend Pinkie.

Applejack raised her right leg, one of the only actions she was still capable of doing, towards the pink pony. Pinkie grabbed her, and started to pull her up. Her lungs felt ready to burst, and her vision was almost completely dark. She could barely see the light from the surface above them, but it was definitely getting closer. Finally, she couldn't take any more, and closed her eyes, giving in to the darkness.

She woke. A searing pain in her ankle made her gasp, and a sudden feeling of something being scraped inside her leg erupted in her, making her cry out in pain.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry!" she could hear somepony say. She opened her eyes, and looked down at herself.

She had a knife in her left shoulder, and a gaping hole in her hind right leg, with a knife resting next to it. Pinkie was sitting next to her, and Rarity was crouched in front of her.

"Applejack, are you ok?" Rarity said. Pinkie came closer, noticing she was conscious. Applejack's shoulder was still in pain, but it was a lot less than before. Her ankle felt worse.

"Uh... I guess. Did you just...?" Applejack trailed off, but was gesturing to her ankle. Rarity nodded.

"Sorry, I didn't realise you were awake, but at least one is out now." Rarity said. Applejack looked at her shoulder.

I s'pose we oughta pull this one out now." Applejack said, nodding at the knife. Her friends nodded. Applejack sighed.

"It's fine, I got it." Applejack said, reaching for the knife sticking out of her shoulder. Something was holding her hoof back.

"Wait!" Rarity yelled, using her horn to stop Applejack, "don't you think one of us should do this?" Applejack shook her head, pushing against the magic force.

"It's fine, I can do it-AHH!" Applejack screamed as Rarity released the magic hold, causing Applejack to smash her hoof into the knife. It slipped out, but caused a lot of pain. Rarity smiled nervously.

"Heh, sorry." Applejack glared at the elegant unicorn.

"How did we become friends."

* * *

Ok, to be honest, I was gonna have Applejack say "Buck you" at the end, but I figured since they never say that in the show, I shouldn't say that here. Anyway, time for my catchphrase: I OWN THE PLAYGROUND!

*Good news! New chapter coming up tomorrow! Sorry it's taking so long, but one of my friend's dog died, and I kinda loved it, so I was a bit out of it for a while. Whenever I got around to writing something, it was terrible, so I had to scrap the lot. So I've almost finished writing the chapter, and it's coming together pretty well, and it actually has a character (from the show) that I didn't actually plan at all to be in the story. Anyway, just gotta edit it and stuff, and then it'll be up. Seeya then!


	17. Reunion

Hey, it's finally up! Sorry, I was kinda busy and stuff, but it finally came through, and now it has a character I didn't realise it would have in the story! Anyway, read it. This baby took two weeks (one day).

* * *

Rainbow Dash looked up, her anger exploding in her. She saw Fluttershy trying to fly away, barely a few meters ahead of her. Dash took off from the ground, reaching the yellow pegasus in an instant. Fluttershy twisted around, her hind leg cracking against Dash's jaw, knocking her back again. The smaller pegasus hardly felt the pain from the impact, and came right back at Fluttershy.

Fluttershy was trembling in fear, watching the rainbow coloured pony getting closer, and forgot that she needed to fly. She started falling, her wings frozen mid-flap. Rainbow Dash zoomed over her, caught off guard from this movement. The cloud beneath Fluttershy was only a few meters below her, and she fell onto it, the force of the impact barely affecting her. She saw the blue pegasus twist in the air, coming around for another charge.

"Rainbow Dash!" she screamed, trying to stop her enraged friend. "please stop!" Rainbow Dash showed no sign of stopping, and Fluttershy cowered on the cloud, trembling in fear, awaiting the impact. For a few seconds, she couldn't hear anything, other than her own sobs, and the sound of rapidly flapping wings getting closer. To her surprise, the latter sound stopped. She moved her hooves from her eyes slowly, looking up her friend. Rainbow Dash was standing a few feet away, her eyes bloodshot, breathing rapidly. She was snarling, and started advancing to her.

"R-Rainbow Dash." Fluttershy mumbled, getting to her hooves. Dash replied with a stomp of her hoof, the strength of it causing the cloud to lower down a few feet.

"Why do you always have to be so slow, Fluttershy?" Dash shouted at Fluttershy. "You could have still..."

"I-I'm sorry, Rainbow," the yellow pegasus said, stuttering nervously, "I tried my best, but-"

"NO EXCUSE!" She screamed at Fluttershy, "THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE!"

Suddenly, Dash started charging at Fluttershy, her vision boiling down to a red haze. Fluttershy hurriedly backed away.

"I-I-I didn't mean it, Rainbow!" Fluttershy was stammering, "B-b-but there was nothing I could have done!" Dash payed no attention to this remark, and was getting closer and closer to her friend. Fluttershy suddenly slipped back, and was gone. It took Dash a moment to realise that Fluttershy had fallen off of the edge of the cloud. It also took a moment for her to realise that she was about to fall off as well. The cyan pegasus tried to slow herself, but was going far too quickly, and catapulted off of the edge, sailing through the air...

* * *

Rainbow Dash gasped, sitting up. She waited for her vision to adjust, rubbing her eyes. Dash slowly raised her head, and looked around herself. She was in a small wooden shack, lying on her back on a bed. She rolled off of the bed onto her feet, and walked to the door. Just before she reached it, it slammed open, knocking her into the air, back onto the bed. She groaned, rubbing her head in pain.

"Heh, sorry." a familiar voice said. Dash looked at the figure standing at the door, and realised who it was. She was quite a bit larger than her, and had brown and white feathers, with an orange beak.

"Gilda?" Dash cried, looking at her old friend in surprise. "what the heck are you doing here?" she hadn't seen Gilda for a few months, since she visited Ponyville. She left quite quickly after her arrival- well, left is putting it lightly. More like stomped out in anger. Gilda had snapped at a party after being pranked multiple times.

"I should be asking you the same question, Dash." Gilda said, smirking.

Dash rolled off of the bed again, and tried to fly over to her friend, but a sharp pain spread through her as she tried to flap her wings, and crashed into the ground.

"Woah there, Dash." Gilda said, walking over to her. "You should keep off of your wings for a while." Rainbow Dash looked back at her wings, and saw they were both bandaged. She moaned.

"Oh, come on! Not again!" she yelled in annoyance. Gilda walked over to her, reaching down to help her up. Dash nodded her thanks, allowing herself to be pulled up.

"You wanna let me know what you were doing in the ocean?" Gilda said, after helping her up.

"Oh, uh, right." Dash said, remembering the events that had happened. "It's kind of a long story..." she trailed off. Gilda tilted her head. "wait, how did you find me, anyway?" Gilda smirked.

"I was doing my morning practices. It's way cooler when you're flying over water, so I thought, what the heck, I'll practice over the ocean today. First, I wanted to practice my quad flips, and then I started doing my loop de spin, and then I-"

"Gilda!" Dash yelled, cutting her off. The griffon grinned at her.

"Ah, right, sorry. Anyway, I was practicing, doing my quad-" the griffon was cut off by Dash's glare. She amended herself. "I was practicing, when you suddenly started falling from the sky! You seemed pretty determined to do the fastest dive possible. I'm surprised you didn't kill yourself," Gilda smiled cheekily. "but it was pretty cool." it was Dash's turn to roll her eyes.

"I wasn't trying to be 'cool', Gilda. As hard as that is for you to believe, not everything is about being cool."

"Hey, you still haven't let that go?" Gilda said, rolling her eyes again. "come on, that was _ages_ ago, jeez." Dash sighed, shaking her head.

"Never mind." Gilda rolled her eyes again. "Jeez, you ever gonna stop doing that?"

"Doing what?"

"Rolling your eyes like that. It's getting annoying." Gilda smirked. The griffon abruptly walked over to a bookshelf near her, and started looking through the books. Dash tilted her head, confused. "What are you doing?" Dash asked, walking over to her friend.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Gilda said, pulling out a book. She then proceeded to walk to a chair in the corner of the room, and sat down, opening the book. Dash gaped at her.

"You're into reading now?" Gilda frowned, but didn't take her eyes off of the page.

"No, I'm reading this book cause I want to turn the paper back into a tree." she said sarcastically. Dash rolled her eyes at her. Gilda smirked again, and she thought she could hear the griffon mumble "hypocrite". Dash grinned, and walked closer to her friend. She looked at the book, and instantly recognised it as the third installment in the _Daring Doo _series, a book she loved.

"Oh my gosh, you're reading _Daring Doo_!" her friend dropped the book onto her lap, arching her brow.

"What's it to you?" Gilda said. "you know it?"

"_Do I know it_? Dash said, smiling. "that's my favourite series!" Gilda looked surprised.

"What, you like reading as well?" Dash nodded enthusiastically. Gilda rolled her eyes again, making Rainbow Dash laugh. "Well, good for you, I guess." Her friend said, ignoring Dash. "If you had told me you liked reading a few months ago, I probably would have called you a-"

"Egghead?" Dash said knowingly. She had adopted using the word from Gilda, and had started using it to describe Twilight. Gilda smiled.

"Or uncool."

"Or a weirdo?"

"Maybe bookworm.

"How bout nerd?"

"Or teachers pet."

"Fatty."

"Glasses."

"Ugly." The friends started to compete, trying to be the last one to say an undermining word for "book lover". Eventually, Gilda won with 'flatulent', which made Dash burst out laughing.

"Ha, I win!" Gilda cried, jumping in the air triumphantly. Unfortunately, the ceiling was lower than the griffon realised, and smashed her head against it. She fell to the ground, holding her injured head. Dash was in fits of laughter, barely able to breath. At first, Gilda was annoyed, but Dash's laughter proved infectious, and was soon joining her friend on the ground, rolling and laughing on the ground. Eventually, the laughter died down, although they still giggled quietly. Gilda sat up suddenly, and turned to her.

"So what were you doing unconscious in the ocean then?" Dash looked at her, a little startled by the sudden change of subject.

"Well, I... uh... I was up in the palace, and was thrown out of a window." Gilda perked up, a look of surprise on her face.

"Wait, what?" Gilda exclaimed, jumping to her feet. "how did that happen?" Dash looked at her uncertainly.

"I'm... not sure exactly. I mean, I was there, talking to Celestia, and then I was knocked out of the window by something." Gilda frowned at her.

"What were you doing in the palace?" Dash opened her mouth to say, but then sighed.

"It's probably for the best if I tell you everything. From the start." Gilda nodded, not moving. Dash tilted her head at her friend.

"You, uh, may wanna sit down. It's kind of a long story." Gilda rolled her eyes again, and Dash vowed to herself she would get the griffon out of that habit. The griffon sat on the bed, and Dash moved to a nearby chair, and sat down.

"Ok, so I guess it all started when I was training with Scootaloo. She-"

"Wait, who?" Gilda said, interrupting her. Dash sighed.

"She... is my-" a stab of sadness hit Dash, as she realised she was talking in present tense. Gilda tilted her head, but didn't say anything.

"She was my sis-student." Dash amended herself. "Anyway, Scootaloo was practising flying, and she managed to stay in the air, and then Fluttershy-"

"Who?" Gilda said, the name unfamiliar to her, even though they had met before. Dash sighed.

"Ok," Dash said tiredly, "this is gonna take a while."

* * *

Yep. It's everyone's favourite griffon (unless you read mythology/hate awesome griffins). Oh, and again, sorry this took two weeks, but hope you enjoy it nevertheless. Anyway, next chapter... could take a while. Or it might be done tomorrow. FIND OUT NEXT ON: !


	18. Ability

Twilight ducked underneath the blue bolt, and instantly responded by sending back an immobilising spell back at Trixie. The blue unicorn simply cast another bolt at Twilight's spell, and they collided in the air. Twilight's spell, being the weaker, dissipated into the air, and she had to dodge out of the way of Trixie's bolt. Twilight ran to a nearby pillar, and used it as cover.

"Oh, come on!" Trixie yelled at her. "That's really all you have for the great and powerful- Yah!" Trixie was blown back by Twilight's modified levitation spell. Instead of simply lifting and moving, it blew back anyone who was hit by it. Trixie cast the ordinary levitation spell on herself as she was in the air, and descended slowly back onto the ground. "You're not going to win this with petty magic tricks." Trixie taunted. "you're gonna have to step it up."

Twilight frowned. She hadn't dabbled much in actual fighting magic, let alone fatal spells. Also, she didn't want to kill anypony. She knew that something was obviously wrong with Trixie. This was even worse than when Trixie had put on that alicorn amulet, and it tainted her into banishing Twilight out of town, and practically enslaving everyone in Ponyville. She had never met anypony who ever wanted to kill somepony on purpose, or wasn't in a murderous rage. Trixie was using extremely dangerous magic, which was only supposed to be used as a last resort.

"Trixie!" Twilight yelled from behind the pillar. "Why are you doing this?"

"Why not do this?" Trixie yelled. "With this much power, I can do anything I want! Even take on the princess!" Twilight's eyes widened.

"W-what?" Twilight said in surprise. "Where is the princess? What did you do with her?" Twilight heard Trixie laugh.

"Oh, Twilight, I thought you were famous for your observations!" Twilight frowned, getting impatient.

"Where is she?"

Suddenly, the pillar she was hiding behind was pulled free of it's place, almost smashing down onto the ground. Trixie was levitating it down, with extreme ease. Twilight conjured a protective shield, and just in time. Trixie threw the pillar straight at her, and Twilight prepared herself. The pillar smashed into the shield, smashing straight through it. Twilight gasped, and was barely able to use her horn to use her own levitation spell against the pillar. It stopped, a few feet from her head.

Trixie had thrown the pillar, so she had released it, and tilted her head to look at the fallen decoration. From her perspective, she could see the pillar tilted so that one end was on the ground, and the other barely above the ground. Suddenly, a purple unicorn darted out from underneath the pillar, and crouched into a defensive stance. Trixie smirked.

"You know, Twilight, I always thought you were pretty smart." Trixie said, rubbing an annoying piece of dust off of her purple cloak. "Not as smart as me, of course, but smart nonetheless. But, you've proved me wrong. You're not fighting back, which will be your downfall." Twilight didn't say anything, but Trixie could see her realisation that what she had said was true. Twilight, even if she could defend herself against Trixie's attacks, would eventually tire.

"Where is the princess?" Twilight said angrily. Trixie laughed again, making Twilight stomp the ground in frustration, her patience running thin.

"Oh, fine! She's with Disco-GAH!" Trixie cried out, interrupting her in the middle of the sentence. Twilight immediately cast her immobilisation spell at Trixie, taking advantage of the distraction. Trixie snapped out of her pain, and grinned at her. The spell hit Trixie in the chest, and for a moment, Twilight felt relief. But then, Twilight noticed that Trixie started glowing, and wouldn't fall. Twilight frowned, confused as to why it seemed to have no effect on Trixie. Suddenly, fire enveloped the blue unicorn. She started laughing maniacally. Twilight slowly backed away from Trixie, as the ball of flame slowly got bigger and bigger, with Trixie in the middle.

Suddenly, the ball of flame stopped expanding, and stayed still. Twilight couldn't hear Trixie anymore. Twilight was about to try to dispel the flame with a water spell, but all of a sudden, it started shrinking. It became smaller and smaller, picking up speed. It continued like this, until finally, the flame looked like it was barely covering Trixie. And then it exploded. Twilight gasped, and hurriedly tried to cast her teleportation spell. The explosion turned into a fireball, and was coming at her quickly. She closed her eyes, and tried to stay calm, and put all her energy into teleporting out of there... she felt the flames enveloping her, and she cried out in agony.

* * *

Writers block sucks! Sorry it took me so long to write this, and yeah, definitely not one of my longest chapter, but I just couldn't get into it! If it wasn't for my sister, this probably wouldn't have been out for a few more weeks! Oh, and I'm sure you know how I love to put twists in the story, so you're probably thinking she lives through it, or it's all an illusion. But I also like killing off characters. Hehe, just trying to rustle some jimmies here.


	19. Explanation

**_*WARING* This chapter is in a sum up format, and not a new chapter. You've been warned!_  
**

**Ok, so i've been paying attention to the reviews (FlutterDashie23, you could have just made that all just ONE review :D), and I realised that I have some cleaning up to do. I just want to remind you guys, this is my first story, and I am learning A LOT from this. I am currently working on two other writing projects, and their quality is definitely helped from what I learned writing this. But, I still need to set some things straight. One thing I noticed in the reviews, is a lot of people saying that it was all very confusing. I can see this, and I wish I could fix these confusions, but it's kinda too late, so I came up with a solution. I will, in this chapter, sum up what has happened so far. Read this if you are confused as to what happened, or just wanna make sure you have it all right. You don't have to read it, although I do recommend it if you're unsure. So, here we go.**

* * *

Fluttershy wakes up on a field, with no memory. She doesn't even remember who she is. After a few minutes, she gets hit (almost literally) by a flashback, in which she sees herself attacking Fluttershy (ok, that was worded badly. I mean, she is seeing from Rainbow Dash's perspective, as she attacks Fluttershy, who she is. So, Fluttershy is essentially watching herself be attacked by Rainbow Dash, and is watching this event from Rainbow Dash's perspective.)

In the flashback, she hears Fluttershy call her Rainbow. The flashback ends as she sees herself charging at Fluttershy. Fluttershy then assumes that her name is Rainbow. Suddenly, she hears voices from somewhere close by, and goes over to investigate. She sees two ponies, Applejack and Twilight (remember, she has no memory, so she has no idea who these ponies are), talking to each other. Through their conversation, Rainbow interprets that she had killed Fluttershy (remember, Rainbow IS Fluttershy, but she doesn't know that at the time.) The two ponies walk away, leaving a distraught Rainbow behind.

She starts crying, which Applejack hears, and comes back. She can't see Rainbow, but can hear her, and is shocked to hear Rainbow talking. Applejack runs off, yelling "You're not Rainbow!" Fluttershy gives chase, but is unable to keep up with her. She gives up, and stops. She eventually comes to the conclusion that the pony she had just chased (Applejack) knew who she is, and what has happened.

Rainbow follows in the direction Applejack went, and finds herself in Ponyville. Rainbow quickly finds Twilights tree house (for those who don't know, this is a literal "tree house"). She sneaks in, and overhears that she is a ghost, which she is shocked to hear.

Rainbow passes out from shock, and has a flashback. She sees herself hitting Fluttershy, and knocking her off the cloud (oh, I should have mentioned, they are fighting in Cloudsdale). Rainbow falls off as well, unable to stop herself. The flashback ends with Rainbow barely above the ground, about to hit it.

When she wakes up, she is restrained by magic in a chair, in the middle of Twilight's library, surrounded by her friends (Pinkie Pie, Twilight, Applejack and Rarity (no Rainbow Dash)). They talk, and Rainbow tells informs them that she overheard that she is a ghost, but is still a little confused by everything. Suddenly, the doors slam open behind her, and her friends all yell out "Rainbow Dash", which is quickly followed by the door slamming shut. This confuses Rainbow, as she thought that was her name (although she didn't know about the "Dash" part of the name). Her friends then inform her that she is not Rainbow, and is Fluttershy, which she realises means that Rainbow Dash had killed her. This information angered her.

The next chapter is told from Rainbow Dash's perspective, and takes place about a minute before the last chapter. She is walking through ponyville, and hears her friends talking from Twilight's home. She goes over to the door, and kicks it open, and sees Fluttershy. She quickly slams the door shut again, shocked by the sight of her friend, as she had killed her not long ago. She runs away, crying, and finds herself at Applejack's barn. She decides to sleep there for the night, and has a dream. In the dream, it goes very much like in Fluttershy's last flashback, except at the end, she sees Fluttershy sacrifice herself for her, pushing her into a nearby resovior, and hits the ground, and dies.

Rainbow Dash wakes up, and sees Fluttershy standing at the door (ok, I've been getting a lot of complaints about this part, and I just want to say, I do mean to explain how this happened. Have faith).

The next chapter is back in Fluttershy's perspective, and she wakes up in the chair, but finds that she can move again. She gets up to leave, but is stopped by the baby dragon, Spike. She tries to reason with him, but Spike refuses her, and threatens to call Twilight. Fluttershy attempts to escape using her wings, but that quickly fails after she finds that her wings are too weak after not being used for a long time. She manages to escape from the house, but is almost stopped by Twilight.

Fluttershy runs to the field that she had died in, and is surprised to see Rainbow Dash (she figures that it is Rainbow Dash due to her rainbow mane) walking towards her. Rage overcomes Fluttershy, and she attacks a surprised Rainbow Dash.

The fight goes on for a while, and during it, Rainbow Dash states that she is confused as to why Fluttershy came to the barn, just to attack her here. Fluttershy has no idea what she is talking about, and continues attacking her.

The fight ends with Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash falling. Fluttershy manages to recover in the air, but Rainbow Dash fails to do so, and dies upon hitting the ground (remember, this isn't a brutal story, so I **WILL NOT** be detailing brutal death in this story. If you want that, read one of my other stories, or better yet, read "Cupcakes".)

Fluttershy is relatively surprised to find that she doesn't feel anything upon finding out that she has killed Rainbow Dash, and turns to leave. Just before she does, she is stopped by laughing in her head. A voice in her head starts talking to her, taunting her over what she had just done. Fluttershy, irritated, demands that the voice reveals itself. The voice then tells that it would prefer to show her.

Suddenly, Fluttershy feels a strange feeling in her head (for those who didn't understand this part, this was the voice giving Fluttershy her memories back. Oh, and also, the voice is Discord, if you haven't realised that yet). The feeling quickly becomes painful, and eventually knocks her out.

Fluttershy then wakes up in Applejack's barn. The voice taunted her again, and she quickly realised what she had done, thanks to her memories that had come back. She then realises that the voice is Discord.

The next chapter is again from Rainbow Dash's perspective, and has her flying through a pretty empty space, apart from clouds (this is heaven to her, by the way.). She notices dark spots appearing above of her, and flies over to them to investigate. The spots all come together, into one giant circle. Through it, she sees her friends, and suddenly remembers everything (this hole was meant to be her eye, opening.). The hole starts closing, so Rainbow Dash quickly darts through it, and wakes up. She talks to her friends, who inform her that Fluttershy is locked in Applejack's barn, which she is relieved to hear. Her friends then try to tell her that Fluttershy had killed her (oh, and by the way, she had been brought back to life by Twilight. The only reason Rainbow Dash could be brought back, but not Fluttershy, is because Fluttershy had been dead for too long, and had suffered from much worse injuries, what with her falling from Cloudsdale).

Suddenly, the door opens behind them, and they turn to see Fluttershy standing there. Fluttershy then taunts her friends, angering Rainbow Dash. Applejack then tells Rainbow Dash that this was obviously Discord who had done this to her, as this is how she had acted when Discord had flipped Fluttershy's personality fairly recently.

Fluttershy suddenly turns brutal, and puts Pinkie in a headlock, saying that she would kill her. Rainbow Dash instantly flies at Fluttershy, and pins her against a wall. Rainbow Dash then says that this was obviously not like Fluttershy, and that she had to snap out of it. Fluttershy gets out of the pin, and they then fight. Their friends are unable to help them, as they don't have wings. The fight then escalates when Rainbow Dash, while holding Fluttershy, flies out of a window, and goes straight up in an effort to get Fluttershy away from her friends.

Fluttershy escapes the grab, and they fight in the air, all the while falling again (quite reminiscent of their last fight). Fluttershy manages to land on the ground safely, and Rainbow Dash is far up in the air. Fluttershy then proceeds to fly back to where her friends are, to kill them. Rainbow Dash tries to give chase, but realises that her only way to catch up would be to use a sonic rainboom, and double her speed, which would be incredibly risky. She does the rainboom, and slams into Fluttershy just before she flies into the room her friends are in, and knocks her through the wall. Fluttershy slams into the far wall across from Rainbow Dash, and stays there.

Rainbow Dash skids over to Fluttershy, and is shocked to see the state that Fluttershy is in. Fluttershy obviously has broken bones in a few parts of her body, and has blood leaking from her mouth (ok, I might do a **LITTLE** bit of detail then). Rainbow Dash states that she didn't mean to do this, and only wanted to stop Fluttershy. Fluttershy then reveals that Discord's hold on her has been relinquished, and she is back to normal, although dieing. Fluttershy then says "Sorry I couldn't save..." before dieing. Rainbow Dash reveals that she knew what Fluttershy was trying to say.

Rainbow Dash turns back to her friends, and tells them that they have to stop Discord, then turns back to Fluttershy, and says "I swear, I'll make that bastard pay." (referring to Discord, obviously)

The next chapter is in the form of a prequel, and shows Rainbow Dash training Scootaloo to fly, with the help of Fluttershy (from Rainbow Dash's perspective). In a nutshell, Scootaloo manages to fly, but then falls, and Rainbow Dash barely manages to save her. What follows is a bonding moment, with Rainbow Dash trying to calm the filly, telling Scootaloo that she had managed better than even Rainbow Dash had managed to.

The next chapter is Rainbow Dash and her friends (except for Fluttershy, obviously) trying to convince Celestia into sending out her army to track down and kill Discord. Celestia refuses them, and Rainbow Dash reacts angrily, but is suddenly thrown out of the palace by an unknown force.

Rainbow Dash sees that she is heading for the ocean around the other side of the palace, and prepares herself, and hits the water.

The next chapter continues from where the prequel left off from. It starts with Rainbow Dash waking up in her house, and Fluttershy waking up in a bed across from her (They are in **separate** beds. I called this story RainbowShy because of the identity crisis in the beginning, there is no naughty buisness going on between them). Rainbow Dash tells Fluttershy that Scootaloo was now living with her, due to Scootaloo having no place to live, as her parents had abandoned her at a young age.

Suddenly, they hear yelling from outside of Rainbow Dash's house (an odd occurrence, seeing as how Rainbow Dash lived in a cloud mansion, high up from the ground). Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy fly outside, and see Scootaloo struggling to fly to the house, and was extremely tired. Shocked, Rainbow Dash reacts instantly, and flies to Scootaloo to help her. Scootaloo suddenly starts dropping, making Rainbow Dash miss. She quickly flies down to save Scootaloo, and reaches her just before they reach the ground, but they are too close to stop themselves. Scootaloo apologises, saying that she only wanted to impress Rainbow Dash.

Suddenly, Fluttershy grabs Rainbow Dash, stopping her just above the ground, and Scootaloo is wrenched from Rainbow Dash's arms, and hits the ground, and dies. Rainbow Dash cries over Scootaloo's dead body. Fluttershy tries to get Rainbow Dash to move, so that they can get help. Rainbow Dash reacts violently, the death of Scootaloo too much to her, as Scootaloo had been like a sister to her. Fluttershy flees, and manages to make it all the way to Cloudsdale. The chapter ends with Rainbow Dash crashing into the ground, barely missing her charge at Fluttershy.

The next chapter is from Twilight's perspective (oh, great, a new perspective to complicate things -.-). This chapter essentially has Celestia reveal herself to be Trixie (ooh, plot twist). Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie flee the palace, leaving Twilight to fight Trixie.

Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie run from the palace, and are attacked by the guards (this chapter is from Applejack's perspective). They all jump off of a bridge into the ocean to escape, but Applejack takes a magic dagger through one of her hind ankles. She is then hit by another dagger in the shoulder. Applejack almost drowns in the water, and passes out.

Applejack awakes to see Rarity pulling out the dagger in her ankle. Applejack then takes out the other knife in her shoulder by herself.

The next chapter continues the What happens next is very much like the flashback in the first chapter, but instead of Rainbow Dash charging at Fluttershy, Fluttershy slips off of the cloud when backing away from Rainbow Dash (**I WILL EXPLAIN THIS LATER, NO SPOILERS!**). (Ok, so this chapter essentially explains WHY Rainbow Dash killed Fluttershy, if you hadn't realised that.)

The next part is Rainbow Dash waking up after hitting the water. She realises she is in a shack somewhere. She is about to leave, when Gilda (the griffon from season one) comes in. Gilda was one of Rainbow Dash's closest friends, so they know each other quite well. Gilda tells Rainbow Dash to stay off of her wings, as they were damaged from the impact of hitting the water. After some goofing around, Gilda tells Rainbow Dash that she found her unconscious in the ocean, and she saved her. Rainbow Dash sits down to tell Gilda everything that has happened.

The next chapter is from Twilight's perspective, and her fight with Trixie. Essentially, the fight shows that Trixie is stronger than Twilight for some unknown reason. The chapter ends with Trixie sending a large fireball at Twilight, with envelops her in flames.

* * *

**Ok, so I will probably delete this chapter, then put it back in once the story is done. This was just me trying to clear some confusion, and I would like it if people told me if I left anything out, or did something wrong, or just explained something badly. There are a few things I will explain later (like why Fluttershy's memory of Rainbow Dash killing her is different to Rainbow Dash's dream). So, thanks to the sudden surge in attention this story just got, I will try to make more constant updates, and I apologise for the MASSIVE decay of chapters coming out, and I think my writers block has mostly passed, so I'll try to write most of the next chapter tomorrow. Stay safe, and Flutter on!**


	20. Agonising

The wood creaked beneath his feet as he paced across the floor, making him flinch. Spike tried to calm himself down, and looked around the room again. He was on the upper level of Twilight's library. There were bookshelves all around him, each of them almost exactly the same height, and organised with amazing skill. He glanced over to his bed, and considered trying to nap. No, no! he thought to himself. I need to stay awake, Twilight could come back! He realised his face was holding a grimace, so he forced it off of himself. He resumed pacing again.  
"Oh, Spike, we'll be fine." Spike said in his best imitation of Twilight. He looked up at the clock hanging on the wall, and frowned as he saw the time. "Quarter to five?" he exclaimed, becoming even more nervous. "They were supposed to be back ages ago!"

Spike stood there, his thoughts moving rapidly around his head, some contradicting each other. Twilight had told him to stay behind, so that they could deal with Discord.  
Spike shook his head in annoyance. "Why hasn't Twilight tried to tell me what has happened? She could just teleport back! Is she ok? Where is she? Is she coming back?" He started to feel panic rising inside of him, but he fought to keep it down. "Well, if she hasn't been able to contact me, something must be wrong!" Spike said, glad he was able to come to a conclusion. He walked over, and picked up his knapsack. "I gotta find her!"

He ran quickly down the stairs, almost tripping on the last few steps in his haste. He ran to the door, and tried to keep it open. His foot made contact, but the door stood firm, and he howled in pain, grabbing his toe.  
"Ow, ow, ow ow ow!" He hopped on his good leg, holding his injured foot. With a cry of anger, he charged into the door, and his shoulder smashed into the door, flinging it open. Spike crashed into the ground, his balance thrown off dramatically. He brought up his arms to break his fall, and flung himself forward upon impact. Back on his feet, he sprinted forward.

Spike mumbled to himself as he ran. "Ok, go to Canterlot, about a hour length run. Find Twilight, make sure she's ok, bring her back-" A shrill scream from behind interrupted his monologue. He snapped his head back to the library, realising it was coming from inside. The scream came again, but this time more panicked. Spike realised that the voice behind the scream sounded familiar. "Twilight." he said aloud, and started sprinting back to the house. "Twilight!" Other ponies stared in confusion and fear at the library, as the screams kept coming.

Spike finally reached the tree house, and slipped through the open door, the screams still coming out, which sounded horrifyingly full of pain. Spike stared into the room, and it took him a moment to process what was happening. There, on the floor in front of him, was Twilight, on the floor, writhing and screaming in agony. Her fur and hair were charred black, and smoke was emitting itself from her. She had large, gaping wounds on her body.  
Spike stared in horror at Twilight, momentarily frozen in place. "T-Twilight!" He quickly moved to a sink, trying to block out her screams. "Hang on!" he yelled back to her. He grabbed a bucket, and hurriedly filled it with water, trying to hurry. Abruptly, the screaming stopped. Spike picked up the bucket, and ran to Twilight's aid. He ran up to her body, and emptied the contents of the bucket onto her still form.

Spike dropped the bucket, and crouched down to Twilight's level.  
"Twilight!" he said, his voice shaking. "Please, wake up." Twilight looked reasonably calm, although unconscious. He moved his arm to try to shake her awake, but then decided against it. Touching charred skin wouldn't be pleasant for either of them.

To his relief, Twilight's eyes flickered open again. His relief was short-lived, as he could see the pain in her eyes. She gritted her teeth, as if she was trying to hide intense pain. He looked into her wide eyes, and saw that they were bloodshot and red rimmed, showing that she had been crying.  
"Sp...ike." Twilight said slowly, barely able to talk through her gritted teeth. Her voice sounded weak, and he had to strain his hearing to make it out. He looked down at himself, and realised his hands were shaking.

He looked back up at her, wide eyed. "What do you need? Please, just tell me what I have to do?" She opened her mouth to speak, but a strangled cry came, cutting her off. Spike's vision started blurring, and he could feel tears forming. "Please, Twilight! What do I do?" For a moment, she was silent, and Spike felt panic rising in him again. But, her eyes fluttered for a moment, and Spike let out a sigh of relief, although small.

Twilight opened her mouth to speak, "Spike..." The sound of her voice both relieved and worried him. "Whatever happens..." Twilight coughed, cutting her off. Blood came out, some splattering onto Spike. He grimaced, but was more worried for her. Her coughing stopped, and she looked up at him again. "Whatever happens... It wasn't your fault." Her eyes closed again. Spike stood there, stunned.  
"T-Twilight?" She didn't respond to him. He dropped down beside her, and put his hands gently on her charred shoulders, and shook her. "Twilight!" She didn't wake up. He put a hand to her neck, and let out a sigh of relief when he felt a faint pulse.  
"Hang on Twilight." Spike said, standing up. "I'll get Zecora."

* * *

**So, I was actually gonna kill Twilight (I might still kill her next chapter though, keep in mind!), but then I realised, there has been a lot of death in this story so far. So, why not take a break from it, and replace it with terrible misery? That is always more fun! Anyway, my writers block is just about completely gone, so more chapters should be coming out, in rapid succession. Also got some good advice from some other writers, and I will be making this story less confusing from here on out. But I will still try to play with your minds :D**


	21. Uncertainty

Chapter 20

Rainbow Dash let out a sigh as she finished the story. She glanced up at Gilda, and saw that she was gaping at her.

"What the-?" Gilda looked almost speechless, which, Dash noted, was a rare occurrence. "You... wait... huh?" Dash almost laughed at her friends surprise, despite the tone of the situation.

"Yeah, it's pretty bad." Dash said solemnly, her humour gone. "I need to get back to the palace, and make sure they're alright." Gilda blinked a few times.

"Uh, how do you plan on doing that? I mean, you can't fly back." Gilda gestured to Dash's bandaged wings. Dash sighed, but then perked up, looking at Gilda.

"But you can." Gilda stared blankly at her friend, before the realisation dawned on her.

Gilda quickly shook her head at Dash. "Uh-uh, no way."

* * *

Dash looked over Gilda's shoulder, as she flew over the ocean, on Gilda's back. The wind ruffled through her feathers as they sped through the air, heading for the Canterlot palace.

Gilda looked back at her, her face holding a glare. "Just don't think I'm gonna do this again anytime soon," the griffon said grudgingly. Dash rolled her eyes in response.

"Trust me, this isn't fun for me either." Gilda sighed, and turned her head back to the palace.

Gilda frowned. "Hey, is that smoke?" Dash looked at the palace again, and saw that smoke was coming out of a window of the palace.

"Oh no." Dash gaped at the window. "Gilda, hurry!" Her griffon friend picked up speed. They were now about 50 feet from the palace. They had almost reached it, when a sudden gust of wind blew into them, knocking them off course. Dash cried out in surprise, almost falling off of Gilda. A cloud suddenly moved underneath them, catching them both.

Before either of them could react, the cloud moved _down, _headed for the banks to the ocean. The cloud landed on the ground, and Dash instantly jumped off of Gilda, and landed on the sand. The waves from the beach almost reached her hooves, and gave off a relaxing _whoosh _sound as they came in.

Dash looked around herself, as Gilda landed next to her.

"What the heck just happened?" Gilda asked, staring at her friend. Dash stood, surveying the area. "How did a cloud go down to the ground? Does that usually happen?"

Dash shook her head. "Unless you wanna count fog, this isn't normal." Dash perked up as she saw three shapes go over a hill in front of them. She frowned, trying to identify them. Then she realised who they were. Dash smiled, and ran forward. Her friends were running to her as well, and Gilda was flying overhead. Applejack was the first to reach them.

"Ya'll alright?" Applejack said, barely panting after the run. Suddenly, a pink blur went over Applejack, and landed on Rainbow Dash. Taken by surprise, Dash hit the sand, with Pinkie Pie on top of her.

"Dashie! Are you ok? What's with the bandages? Were you hurt? Why is that meanie with you?" To all of their surprise, Rainbow Dash started laughing. She had forgotten about Pinkie's eccentric attitude, and found it hilarious. They all looked at her in confusion. Gilda shrugged, and then glared at Pinkie.

"Hey, what did you call me?" Pinkie looked up at Gilda, and smiled. The griffon continued glaring. "I haven't done anything wrong since I got her, and you calling me a "meanie" is really- Dash, do you mind?" Rainbow Dash was still laughing on the ground, and started rocking around. Pinkie, as she was on top of her, slipped off of Dash, and landed on her side. Pinkie started laughing too, joining in.

Gilda stared at Dash and Pinkie in disbelief. She looked up, and saw that another unicorn had joined them. Applejack turned to the pony.

"Rarity, just... don't ask." the earth pony said, shaking her head. Rainbow Dash finally stopped laughing, but still shuddered, holding back giggles. Pinkie instantly stopped laughing, and jumped to her feet. Rarity walked over to Rainbow Dash.

"Are you alright?" the elegant pony said. Dash shrugged. She had stopped shuddering. "Sorry if the ride down wasn't... pleasant. I don't usually work with clouds." Dash frowned at Rarity.

"You were the one who moved the cloud? And made that gust of wind?" Rarity nodded.

"We were looking for you. We saw you and... her," Rarity gestured to Gilda, "flying over our heads, and headed for the palace. We don't know what's up there, we only just saw the smoke."

Dash was about to reply, when she realised that three of her friends there, excluding Gilda. "Uh, where's Twilight?" Her friends all exchanged a worried look. Dash narrowed her eyes. "She isn't with you?"

"Uh... no, she aint. She's uh..." Applejack trailed off, and looked up at the palace. Dash followed her look, and found herself staring at the smoking window. "Hang on, she was up _there?_" Dash said incuriously. Her friends nodded solemnly.

Before any of them could react, Gilda took off from the ground, and headed for the palace. Dash tried to take off from the ground, but her wings were bandaged together.

"Gilda! Come back!" Gilda either couldn't hear her, or didn't care. She continued flying to the palace. They all watched silently, hoping that nothing would go wrong. Gilda reached the top, and flew through the window. They all waited, hoping that she would come back out. Their worry was short-lived, as Gilda flew back out. She descended next to Dash.

"It's empty." the griffon said, shaking her head. Dash frowned, and turned to her friends. She could see they were all thinking the same thing: _Where is Twilight?_

* * *

Alright, so now I know where this story is going. And yeah, I know I could have made the fact that they were all separated into an interesting story element, but there was really nothing I could think of to do with that, so I just went with this. Next chapter... should be interesting. I know I'm overusing this, but consider your jimmies rustled.


	22. Moribund

Twilight was only dimly aware of everything going on around her. Apart from an slight burning sensation from all over her, she couldn't feel much else. She tried looking around herself, but her body wouldn't respond. Her vision was unfocused, but she could still make out some objects.

She raised her head slightly, and attempted to look around herself. She was surprised to find that everything was moving around her, even though she wasn't. She wearily raised her head, and noticed that the objects around her were moving behind her, and the things in front of her were coming closer. For a moment, she thought that she was falling, but this thought quickly disappeared, and a logical one took its place. After a few seconds to let her mind process what was going on, she realised that she was being moved.

Feeling uncertain, she looked down at herself, and saw that she was lying on some sort of mat. She was about to look away again, but she suddenly got the feeling that she was overlooking something. She tried focusing her eyes, until the shapes around her all focused into one object. Her eyes widened in surprise and shock as she stared at her coat. Instead of the usual bright lavender colour, it was black and charred, and that was only for some of her fur. There were a few gaping burn wounds, and some of her fur had burned off. Feeling panic rising in her, she tried opening her mouth to speak, but all that came out was a hoarse cry.

A noise. She could hear something else now. Her hearing wasn't quite focused yet, but there was definitely a new noise now. With a frown (or what she thought was a frown), she turned to the noise, and saw something familiar. Spike.

He was behind the mat she was lying on, and she realised that he was pushing the mat that she was on top of. He had started talking to her as well. All of a sudden, the world around her focused back into place, and her senses were all fully functioning again. And she could feel the full force of a searing pain hit her, the intense feeling all around her. A cry of pain escaped her open mouth, which sounded like the noise a cat would make if its tail was being pulled off.

She realised that Spike was talking to her. "...calm, we're almost there." She was barely able to hear his words over her own cries of pain. She could see that Spike was grimacing, but not from the effort of pushing her (she figured that the mat she was on had wheels, based on how smoothly they were moving, so it wouldn't be that difficult to push, even with her on it), but from being unable to help her.

The rest of the ride was extremely painful, for both of them. Twilight, although she wasn't able to tell exactly where she was, could determine that she was in a forest of some sort. It wasn't very bright, and all the branches looked gnarled, and all of the leaves had fallen off. Despite the fact that the trees were dead, and there didn't seem to be much shade, hardly any sunlight got through the trees branches, making their surroundings look gloomy and dark.

Eventually, the searing pain died down, and allowed Twilight some breathing room. Although she wasn't screaming in agony, small whimpers could still be heard from her.

At some point (Twilight couldn't tell exactly how long the ride had taken), they stopped moving. She turned around, and saw, to her horror, that Spike had left. Moving out of instinct, she managed to roll onto her other side, and attempted to fall off of the mat. She moved her hooves to catch herself as she hit the ground, but when they hit the dirt, a jolt of pain went through her, and then, with a yelp of pain, crashed into the ground. The searing pain returned over the parts of her body that touched the ground, as if the dirt was boiling hot.

Clenching her teeth, she slowly got to her feet, this time trying to avoid letting any of her limbs touch the ground, and try to restrict any touching to her hooves. Eventually, she succeeded in getting to her feet, and she looked around herself. With a jolt of surprise, she realised that she was in the Everfree Forest. Wondering why on Equestria Spike would take her here, she turned around, and got an answer to her query. With its wooden supports, and spooky look, she realised that she was standing in front of Zecora's shack.

She attempted a frown, but only succeeded in sending even more pain to herself. Moving her hoof carefully, she attempted a step forward, but found out that was a big mistake. Her legs weren't in any shape for movement, and instantly buckled beneath her, sending her back onto the ground again.

"Twilight!" she heard Spike yell. Despite the immense pain that was forming again, she looked up, and saw Spike, standing with the zebra with a mohawk. "Twilight, it's ok, I found Zecora. She can heal you!"

Twilight tried to say something in reply, but her body wouldn't respond again. Her vision started to darken, and the last thing she saw before losing consciousness was Zecora smiling wickedly at her.

* * *

Ok, the reason it took me so long to upload this, was actually just extreme idiocy on my part. I'd forgotten that I had written this chapter already! Anyway, I actually haven't started on the next chapter, so I should start that now... And remember: War never changes; ponies do.


	23. Companion

She hated what she was feeling. The others had told her to go to Ponyville with Gilda to look for Twilight. Her friend could be in danger. Yet, Rainbow Dash was having fun. Despite the uneasy feeling in her stomach, flying quickly was exhilarating to her. She was tempted to try and do some tricks on the way, but quickly stomped those thoughts away. Twilight could be in trouble.

A loud explosion brought her out of her thoughts, making her gasp out. She realised that she was now going much faster, making her realise what had happened before she had turned around.

She let out a slight chuckle. "Wow, I should have thought to do that before." Behind her, Gilda struggled to catch up, and was waving a claw angrily in front of her.

The rainbow blast spread across the mountain she had just passed, and continued to spread for miles. Grinning, Rainbow Dash sped towards the rapidly growing shape of Ponyville. Then she saw it. Smoke was engulfing the town, and flames were covering the big tree in the middle of town. Ponyville was going to go up in flames.

With a loud cry, she sped even faster towards the town, sending out yet another rainboom. She could see ponies running in fear from the town, trying to escape from the overwhelming smoke. They didn't even notice the colourful explosion as it passed over them, too scared to look up. Flying closer, she could see other shapes in the darkness spreading across the town. Some weren't moving.

Rainbow Dash felt different emotions. Sorrow, worry, panic, but the one that trumped them all was anger. Somepony was trying to burn down Ponyville, and she wasn't going to stand by while it happens. Without thinking, she sped off again. She was now going faster than she had ever gone before, nearly doubling her speed after doing a sonic rainboom.

She reached the field below Cloudsdale in seconds, and was spinning rapidly around the reservoir. A rainbow coloured tornado started forming, with water already rising up into it. Gritting her teeth, she pushed herself to pick up as much water as possible. The water surrounding her threatened to come crashing down again, but she fought against it. She could already feel her strength starting to leave her, and she slowly started to slow down again. A scream escaped from her muzzle as she struggled against it, but it was to no avail; she wasn't strong enough. And based on how much energy she was using, there wasn't going to be any second chances.

Sweat (or was it just droplets from the water?) ran down her body as she struggled against the strain, still denying it to drop. Then, just as she felt the water about to break free, the tornado regained its strength, and started to speed up again. Panting, Rainbow Dash frowned; she wasn't the reason it had sped up again. She felt something nudge her shoulder. Looking over her shoulder, she saw her griffon friend grinning at her.

"Thought you could ditch me, huh?" Gilda said, adding her own strength to the tornado. "Not that easy, Dash." Despite herself, Rainbow Dash grinned back at her friend.

"Wish... it was... that easy!" she panted, still struggling to keep up. The effort to simply get the tornado started was immense, as was maintaining it, and Rainbow Dash had already spent a lot of her energy. A determined look spread across Gilda's face as she levelled herself with Rainbow Dash, which she realised meant that either she had slowed down, or that Gilda had gotten a lot faster. Hopefully, the latter was true. And, luckily, it was.

The tornado finally reached full capacity, and had enough water in it to put out a mansion, Twilight's library should be nothing (Rainbow Dash was already thinking of ways to apologise to Twilight about her soon to be flooded house). Moving with as much grace and speed as possible, they carefully rose up, taking the tornado with them. Rainbow Dash glanced over to Gilda, and saw that the griffon was struggling. She needed to move quickly, or they risked losing the water (assuming Ponyville hadn't already been burned to the ground).

They started moving the tornado towards the town (although she had to strain herself to see, Ponyville was visible through the tornado), trying to keep it balanced as they moved. Although they didn't want to go too fast, they needed to hurry. Although Twilight's house was quite hard to see, the flames enveloping it weren't. To their relief, they could see that the town hadn't caught fire, although some flames were getting quite close to the other houses.

Rainbow Dash could barely feel her wings anymore; they had gone numb, which she figured was a bad thing, but at least they weren't screaming at her to stop anymore.

They had finally reached the burning library, and had positioned the tornado above the house. Tears started to form in Rainbow Dash's eyes, but she desperately tried to stay concentrated on the task at hand. For a moment, she hesitated; they had the water over the library, but... what now? Her plan to simply let the tornado crash down wouldn't work, water would fly around everywhere, and miss most of the flames.

Gilda nudged her again. "We... gotta... fly it in!"

Of course. If they guided the water into the flames, there was no chance of it failing. But it also meant the risk of being catapulted at high speeds into a burning house. But there was no other option.

Rainbow Dash nodded, and guided herself down the tornado, pushing the water towards the fire. Gilda followed suit behind her, and soon they were both near the bottom of the tornado, and pushing it down together. It was then that it started to go wrong.

Gilda started wobbling in the air, losing her balance. Rainbow Dash felt the strain on her wings increasing as the griffon had to shift her focus to her balance, or risk being thrown out. For a split second, Rainbow Dash couldn't decide on what to do. Gilda wouldn't be able to stabilise in the middle of a tornado, but if she tried to help her friend, the spinning storm risked being destroyed, along with any hope to save the house. But Rainbow Dash knew what her choice would be, even before she decided on it.

She reached Gilda in a matter of seconds, and grabbed the griffon, attempting to stop her from spinning out of control.

"Stop... I'll be... fine... stop fire..." Gilda was near exhaustion, and it was clear that she would barely be able to help either way. But Rainbow Dash knew that she couldn't abandon her friend.

"Don't give up!" she would have shouted it, but doing so would use more air than she wanted to use. Their spinning had slowed, but only slightly. The tornado was already losing its strength, and was starting to wobble, as if it was losing its balance.

Twisting herself around, Gilda looked up at the pegasus. She brought her claws up, and had them against her friend's stomach. Rainbow Dash's eyes widened as she realised her friend's intentions.

"D-don't!" She tried to angle herself out of her friends range, but it was impossible; she would have to let go, and she wouldn't be doing that.

Gilda smirked at her. "Sorry." With a strong thrust, the griffon pushed Rainbow Dash off of her, and let herself be sucked into the outer layer of the tornado.

Rainbow Dash reacted immediately, and used a desperate strength in her that she hadn't realised that she had. The tornado lurched, and started to break. She looked around desperately, and her eyes fell onto a claw that quickly disappeared into the water. Without a moments hesitation, she launched herself towards where the claw had disappeared, and reached out.

She burst through the water, and was on the other side in a matter of seconds. She spotted the falling griffon falling towards the ground. With a loud cry, Rainbow Dash propelled herself down. She attempted to use a sonic rainboom to reach her friend, but found to her horror that her wings simply couldn't muster the strength for the feat. With a growl of frustration, she focused on the falling figure, determined to reach her before the ground did.

A memory surfaced in her anxious mind; trying to save Scootaloo. She quickly stamped the memory away, and focused on the task at hand. With a start, she realised that she had passed Gilda after being distracted, and was barely above the ground. Using her own momentum, she pulled up and flipped back, and flew directly into her friend.

Rainbow Dash didn't even drop after catching her friend, and slowly descended to the ground. When she reached a distance from the ground she decided was acceptable, she let herself drop down, her exhausted body unable to function anymore. She heard Gilda drop beside her, and found the her friend was unconscious. With a weary sigh, she set herself back down again... and remembered what they had just been doing.

She jolted up (much to her body's annoyance), and looked with bleary eyes at the remains of Twilight's house. They had wound up just past the town's boundaries. Inside the town, she could Twilight's house. The tornado had somehow managed to break right up against the house, so that the water inside could sash through it. But, there was too much damage. They may have saved the rest of Ponyville from being burnt to the ground, but the house was crumbling, partially destroyed. She had failed Twilight.

* * *

Ok, sorry this one took that long (I'm pretty sure I say that every time), but I finally wrote it. Anyway, the reason my constant chapter streak has started to deteriorate is because I started reading _Fallout: Equestria_, and wow, is that thing big! So, I have almost finished it, so my chapters should start picking up speed soon. Until then, "I OWN THE PLAYGROUND!"


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